Ontario tomato farmers considering legal action against canning company

Feb 22, 2017

Growers say Thomas Canning didn’t fulfill its contract agreements

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

A group of about 14 tomato growers from Essex County and Chatham-Kent are contemplating taking legal action against a local canning company, which they say didn’t fulfill its contract obligations.

The farmers say they signed contracts with Thomas Canning but instead the Maidstone, Ont. company let the crops rot because its facility couldn’t accept the tomatoes. Thomas Canning left nearly $4 million worth of tomatoes in the fields.

According to CBC, Bill Thomas, owner of Thomas Canning, received a $3 million provincial grant in 2014 to expand his facility.

At the time, Thomas said the grant would provide “more acreage for the growers and more work in the plant for those employees that are there.”

But one of the growers, Peter Epp, told CBC on Wednesday the expansion didn’t take place. Instead, Thomas used the funds to purchase more equipment.

Epp’s brother David said the delay cost him about $300,000.

“(Thomas) assured he had plans to increase his processing capacity and he had the financial wherewithal, the government $3-million grant, to financially be able to do that and so we proceeded to plant the crop, David Epp told CBC.

“I met with him Aug. 20 which is already six days into when we indicated we’d have July fruit ready for him and he still wasn’t open. I knew then it wasn’t going to happen this year.”

CBC reports the growers met with their lawyers and will meet with Thomas on Thursday.

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