Joshua Allan
Special to The Advocate
Negotiations to sell a multi-million-dollar vertical strawberry production plant in Vaudreuil-Dorion, just off the western tip of the island of Montreal continue. The Ferme d’Hiver facility, which launched with fanfare in 2021, had come up short of its lofty goal to replace 10 per cent of Canada’s total strawberry imports by this year, even after having received $32 million in government funding in 2022.
Ferme d’Hiver founder and technological director Yves Daoust confirmed that negotiations for the sale of the operation are ongoing but declined to share details, nor offer the names of interested buyers.
The company had reportedly been in talks with GUSH, a vertical strawberry farm based in Montreal, for a potential sale of the facility back in January. However, in a media interview Daoust said the plant is drawing interest from several potential buyers.
A technological approach to agriculture
Founded in 2018, Ferme d’Hiver had sought to create an innovative approach to strawberry farming. Combining agricultural practices with climate engineering systems in a greenhouse environment and using artificial intelligence, the company aimed to produce pesticide-free strawberries year-round.
The production plant was designed to use indoor climate simulation systems to create an optimal environment for strawberry production. This system was meant to bypass the traditional reliance on Mother Nature for optimal weather for crop growth. The plant includes eight production rooms, with a maximum capacity of 60,000 strawberry plants.
In 2022, Ferme d’Hiver received $32 million in combined funding from the Quebec government and Investissement Québec in order for the company to “position itself among the world leaders in the vertical farm industry,” according to a statement released at the time.
The company aimed to produce about 13 million kilograms of strawberries by 2025, which would have replaced 10 per cent of Canada’s total strawberry imports.
However, the business experienced significant difficulties in the years since. Daoust had explained to the media that the company had made a misguided attempt to start production before construction of the plant had been completed. This led to issues of outside exposure for the strawberry plants, which was compounded by the company’s decision not to use pesticides. As a result, production at the facility never hit full capacity, creating an irreparable gap between expenses and revenue.
Construction had been completed by last spring, but the decision to sell was made in August following a meeting between the company and its creditors.
In 2021, Ferme D’Hiver built its first strawberry-growing facility inside a $4-million 20,000-square-foot greenhouse. This facility, equipped with lights and climate-control technology, regulates humidity and temperature, and simulate sunshine and rain, creating the perfect growing climate for the berries. This approach to vertical indoor growing was not new, but combining it within a larger greenhouse facility was. Integrating the two facilities was touted as the game-changer.
All the light energy generated in the strawberry-growing space is transformed into heat and used to warm the surrounding greenhouse. The aim was to convert the energy for a secondary purpose to facilitate growing vegetables all year round.