By Corey Fischer

New Salad Plant Looks For Local Labour

Dec 11, 2017 | 6:56 AM

A lot of businesses are finding it hard to find workers in the Vernon area, but the company behind the planned salad products operation in Coldstream says it has a strategy for finding labour.

Vegpro International will be hiring up to 200 staff for the 60 million dollar operation on 700 acres purchased from the Coldstream Ranch.

President Gerry Van Winden says they hope to hire as many locals as possible, but they will look elsewhere if needed.

We can count of foreign labour, that’s one thing we can do, especially on the farming side.”

Van Winden says at least 50% of their farm workers in Quebec are from Mexico.

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“I understand on the farm side when its seasonal, it might be a little harder to find people, but at the plant, because it’s year round, it should be a little bit easier.”

He says most of the jobs will be year round, starting at 15 dollars an hour.

Meantime, the Canadian owned operation has big plans not just for now, but also in the future.

Van Winden says they would like to become a force in the organic market, products mostly supplied from the US now.

He says they want to be the first Canadian company to sell the products on a large scale, eventually using their Coldstream Ranch site to grow the lettuce and spinach.

“We’ve got a learning curve as far as organic. We have to learn how to do it here, but after that, we are able to supply the east Coast of Canada. It’s a long term vision.”

Van Winden says it won’t happen soon, as converting the soil to organic is a three year process.

He says about 15 percent of their current sales are organic, products grown in the US.

Vegpro’s products are sold under the Fresh Attitude brand.

by Corey Fischer