Reaction to the federal announcement on pesticides
Ste-Sophie, August 22, 2019 – Following the statement issued by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada “Government of Canada invests to help reduce pesticide applications for Fruit and Vegetable Industry” on August 15, SAVOURA wishes to explicitly emphasize, that they have not used any chemical pesticides for over a year in any of their conventional productions, for all of their 9 greenhouse complexes across the entire territory of Quebec. In fact, for the 15 last years, the company has been experimenting with a variety of alternative methods to fight against diseases and insects, which enabled them to progressively eliminate all chemical pesticides in their greenhouse crop management.
SAVOURA welcomes the initiative from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to support research in reducing the use of pesticides and their impact on greenhouse productions. This work, which will mainly be conducted by Mirabel Agri-Food Research Center (CRAM), will be useful for the entire greenhouse industry and will allow other companies to join SAVOURA, already a leader in the greenhouse vegetable growing industry.
For Richard Dorval, General Manager of production for the entire SAVOURA group, there is no doubt that this goal of reducing chemical pesticides for the organization is consistent with the increasingly environmentally responsible expectations of the North American market and the consumers that we serve. “The environment and health are increasingly important elements in regard to purchasing decisions by consumers, which is why we have begun this important shift, we hope it will inspire the rest of the industry”, stated Richard Dorval.