Demand for locally-grown produce on the rise

With supply chains facing more challenges these days, there's a movement growing in Calgary that may reduce the number of links the supply chain needs to get from farm to your table.

That's because there are a number of urban farmers in the Calgary area growing fresh produce every day.

Ryan Wright is the CEO and cofounder of NuLeaf Farms in southeast Calgary. They've been in business since 2016 and sell home growing kits for home owners but have developed technology to grow produce on a much larger scale for commercial operations.

"Since the pandemic there's been a growing interest in people being able to grow at home and now with even more supply chain disruptions, inflation, kind of pick your problem, people are more concerned about having food accessible to them all the time," he said.

Wright says the beauty with locally-grown produce is it's picked the day it shipped to customers and that  triples the time it lasts in the refrigerator.

"We sell to restaurants, we sell to local retailers and we sell directly to people in the surrounding community," said Wright. "We've seen all three silos of those businesses pick up."

Hydragreens Produce is newer to the game, being in business for less than a year. Marc Schulz is its president.

"We grow lettuce, a variety of herbs, basil, thyme, oregano, and microgreens," he said.

Schulz says many people don't realize how much produce is grown in the region year round.

"We don't grow apples or pears or anything else here but we can grow quick turning lettuces and greens," said Schulz. "All that green stuff that's good for you but also that's available, we can have that available here in Calgary."

He says it takes an average of six weeks to grow from seed to harvest and he says more people want to buy local.

"There's a lot of customers looking to to get more local," said Schulz. "So a grocery store's customers are asking to be more local and more sustainable."

Dan Berezan is the founder of CultivatR, a home delivery service for locally-grown produce and other items. He's also seeing business increasing.

"The biggest thing is people are starting to realize the advantages of eating local," he said. "And that's kind of our big advantage is that everything we sell is local."

He says right now many urban farmers are limited to what they can grow but that's changing as demand increases.

"You know, we've got all these great producers doing amazing things," said Berezan. "Maybe we can't grow avocados yet but you know, it's what we talk about and the technology is there, it's just we need people to support it and it's an opportunity to really grow businesses in Alberta."