NatureFresh Farms announces expansion of cucumber production

Since 2015, NatureFresh Farms Sales has been selling long english cucumbers and mini cucumbers exclusively grown and packed at Vine Fresh Acres, a Leamington, Ontario, Canada greenhouse. With the most recent 17-acre expansion completed early this year at the cucumber operation, NatureFresh Farms Sales now markets a total of 34 acres of long english and mini cucumbers to meet growing demand within the category.
NatureFresh Farms Sales has experienced dramatic growth in the past five years, consistently supplying more retailers with high quality, fresh produce.

Matt Quiring, Executive Retail Sales Account Manager at NatureFresh Farms, sees massive growth potential for the Cucumber market in the U.S,

“While some of our retailers are reporting year-over-year growth of 25-45 percent in this category, others have still not fully tapped into this growing market. When merchandized properly, retailers can see massive sales potential with Long English Cucumbers – it is a matter of getting the product out of the back corners of the wet racks and merchandizing them in large bulk displays on the floor," he says, according to a press release. 'Product education is also key to tapping into this growth - when we take our Greenhouse Education Center to certain regions in the U.S., we can educate consumers about the product, sharing storage tips, as well as usage and recipe ideas! Those who are doing it right are selling up to 30-40 percent more volume than those who have not taken these steps. We constantly work with our retail partners to help drive this home and have experienced very positive results with those who execute the strategy."

One of the operation’s lead growers also confirmed that the growth of NatureFresh Farms Sales directly aligned with the expansion of the facility – adding another 17 acres to the greenhouse means that, going forward, NatureFresh Farms Sales can better meet increased market demand and create year-round availability for Ontario-grown cucumbers.

NatureFresh™ Farms has always encouraged the use of innovative technology within greenhouse operations, with this 17-acre expansion being no exception. Looking specifically at the pack line, a variety of state-of-the-art automations were added to increase efficiency, including automatic Cucumber dumpers and robot case stackers.