Canam Fresh has been growing fast. Our new name and look reflect an exciting time of growth and innovation for our company. In just over 10 years, we’ve evolved from growing a single harvest of bell peppers in Aylmer, Ontario, to growing more than 30 produce items in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Our people deliver wholesome goodness from our fields to millions of homes every day with integrity and sustainable reliability.

Before we delve into our business story, please feel free to subscribe to our newsletter and follow our blog. We plan to make the Canam Fresh blog a mix of business and pleasure. Home to good news about our company and the communities we service, insights into the rapidly changing agriculture business, and delicious recipes and food ideas created by our chef and food scientists.

Building from the ground up

Let’s face it—there are no shortcuts in farming. Making sure you have the right seeds, in the right soil, at the right time, in the right climate is the only way to successfully farm any produce item—let alone more than 30 different ones. Even with all the right ingredients, we only grew quickly because of our people. Like most farmers, we started as a family business, and prospered thanks to the hard work, dedication, and integrity of our team. The people who joined Canam Fresh in the past 10 years possess the same qualities. As part of our values, we say as we do and do as we say, keep our promises, and ensure that satisfaction is guaranteed.

Peppers started it all

The success of our bell peppers raised the demand from our clients for more produce items, which kicked off a search for farms in different climates. Our initial 4,000 acres located close to the northern shores of Lake Erie quickly expanded to other locations within Southern Ontario. The Canadian and US growing season are relatively short, so expansion to warmer southern climes ensures delivery year-round. Farming produce items where they grow naturally also produces a dramatically smaller carbon footprint when compared to heating greenhouses in the offseason. Happily, we found like-minded partners in the Arizona and Yucatan-peninsula farming communities. Demand from our processing partners, distributors, and retailers soared, so one produce item became 30, and 4,000 acres grew to 20,000 acres and today, 40,000. Read more about our farms.

Bridging the old and new

Farming is the original ‘old school’ tradition—human societies only exist because of crop raising. Canam Fresh combines the best of old school traditions with next-generation innovation. We practice sustainable farming, reducing our resource footprint and minimizing waste. Those principles inspired imPASTA! Foods, our consumer product.

Spaghetti squash’s soft and sensitive outer skin easily stains and scars. Retailers reject them—despite the insides still being deliciously edible and resembling angel hair pasta when shredded. Scarring wastes a whopping 40 percent of the harvest. The squash is fragile and conventional processing easily destroys the unique strand structure. The unsellable harvest went to food banks or left in the field to compost. Not a great outcome for the bottom line or the Canam Fresh commitment to next generation farming practices.

Peter Mead, our VP, Business Development suggested a solution and found a R&D partner in Niagara College. Their team developed a way to process the spaghetti squash to maintain its strand structure and create a shelf-stable product that would last at least six months. imPASTA! Foods is the result—a frozen, pre-peeled, cored, par-baked, low-carb, gluten-free delicious pasta alternative that is ready in minutes!

Get growing with Canam Fresh

Our fantastic employees in Canada, the US and Mexico drive our success. We also have to acknowledge our customers, of course, such as the retail buyers and merchandisers who showcase wholesome goodness to consumers and food processors, who bring healthy eating to kitchen tables via packaged goods. Thank you for your past support and look forward to the exciting days ahead!

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Have a question or topic you’d like to know more about? We’d love to hear from you, so please email Canam Fresh at info@canamfresh.com to share your thoughts.

Keep reading

Is produce grown in Canada and the US safer? The case for PrimusGFS – Canam Fresh

Differentiating products through farming innovation – Canam Fresh

Supply chain resiliency in the food industry – Canam Fresh