Quick Facts
A glance at the BC Greenhouse Growers’ Association:
- Number of member greenhouses: 55
- Percentage of B.C.’s total greenhouse vegetables grown by our members: 96 percent
- Total annual farm gate sales for BC greenhouses: More than $299 million
- The estimated value of the sector to British Columbia’s economy: More than $699 million
- Number of people employed: More than 3,500
- The total amount of B.C.’s farmland used: 0.01 percent
- Amount of herbicides used in greenhouses: None
- Number of months we produce vegetables: 10 (some are available year-round using lights)
- Size of fields needed to produce the same amount of vegetables grown in our greenhouses: 11,550 acres, more than eleven times the size of Vancouver’s Stanley Park
- Types of vegetables grown: many varieties of tomatoes including beefsteak, tomato on the vine and cocktail, sweet bell peppers, hot peppers, mini peppers, long English cucumbers, mini cucumbers, eggplants, butter lettuce and strawberrries
- Distribution of vegetables in production:
- Tomatoes: 28%
- Long English cucumbers: 12%
- Bell peppers: 56%
- Other: 4%
- Average number of plants per acre:
- Tomatoes: 10,000
- Cucumbers: 6,000
- Peppers: 14,000
- Average amount of vegetables produced using less space than your bathtub* takes up:
- Tomatoes: 150 pounds
- Cucumbers: 160 cucumbers
- Peppers: 55 pounds
- Amount of tomatoes produced by one of our greenhouses when setting the world record in 2002: 165 pounds per square meter.
*per square metre