Greenhouse Farmers Answer Commonly Asked Questions!

Who We Are

The BC Greenhouse Growers’ Association represents greenhouse vegetable farmers in British Columbia. Our growers produce 96 percent of all of B.C.’s greenhouse vegetable production.

Our members produce succulent tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce and eggplant. Taking up only 0.01 percent of B.C.’s total farmland, our glass greenhouses produce about 11 percent of the province’s total agriculture production value. Our healthy and fresh vegetables feed the people of B.C. and the world.

Since 1973, when the Western Greenhouse Growers’ Cooperative Association was formed to pack and market greenhouse vegetables produced by a newly emerging sector, we have grown to be one of B.C.’s agriculture success stories.

The BC Greenhouse Growers’ Association is committed to delivering services and research programs to our members to help keep them globally competitive and to keep a vibrant and sustainable greenhouse vegetable sector in B.C., while providing high-quality and safe greenhouse vegetables to consumers. Greenhouse growers are the farmers for British Columbia’s 21st Century. We grow world-class products in harmony with the environment.

History

In 1973, a group of greenhouse vegetable growers established the Western Greenhouse Growers’ Co-operative Association, to pack and market greenhouse vegetables grown in B.C.’s Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island.

In the mid 1990s, the Co-op changed from a marketing organization to a grower-owned marketing company called BC Hot House Foods Inc. It was the only marketing agency for greenhouse vegetables. At the same time the greenhouse growers formed a separate non-profit association called the BC Hot House Growers’ Association to handle important research activities and provide industry wide representation.

After the BC Vegetable Marketing Commission approved two new marketing agencies in 2002 – Global Greenhouse Produce Inc., and Greenhouse Grown Foods Inc./ Windset Farms – the non-profit organization changed its name to the BC Greenhouse Growers’ Association to better reflect the members it serves.

Other marketing agencies that have joined since 2006 are Country Fresh Produce Inc., Village Farms Canada L.P., Island Vegetable Co-op Assn., Okanagan Grown and Vancouver Island Farm Products.

Please note our association is not involved in the selling or marketing of produce for our members.  This is done through a recognized marketing agency.  A list of marketing agencies can be found on the BC Vegetable Marketing Commission’s website here.