Ontario produces the most greenhouse cucumbers in Canada
By Diego Flammini
News Reporter
Farms.com
Yesterday was considered National Pickle Day, according to the National Day Calendar.
The global pickle market was valued at about US$10.80 billion in 2016, according to Mordor Intelligence, a global market research and consulting firm. That value is expected to climb to about US$14.57 billion by 2022, the firm reports.
But of course, we need cucumber producers to contribute to the global pickle market.
In Canada, Ontario greenhouse farmers produce the most cucumbers in the country.
Ontario growers produced 276.6 hectares of greenhouse cucumbers in 2016, according to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s (AAFC) 2014 crop profile. Cucumbers also account for about 26 per cent of the total greenhouse vegetables in the country.
Canadian farmers cultivated 364.6 hectares of greenhouse cucumbers in 2016, meaning Ontario growers grew about 76 per cent of the national greenhouse cucumber acreage.
Cucumbers also contributed almost $11 million in gross farm value in 2016, according to Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers.
Following Ontario, British Columbia has the second highest cucumber acreage.
B.C. growers grew 42.4 hectares of greenhouse cucumbers in 2016, which represents about 12 per cent of the country’s production, according to AAFC’s crop profile.
British Columbia exported more than $16 million worth of cucumbers in 2016, according to the provincial agriculture ministry. That number is up from $12 million in 2015.
But the world leader in cucumber production is China.
Its farmers produce about 70 per cent of the world’s cucumbers, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. In 2012, they produced 2,109,624 hectares of cucumbers, according to the UN.
Top photo: Kativ/iStock/Getty Images Plus