Regional food hub would generate spinoffs for local ag, says Simcoe County economic development director

Thursday, January 23, 2014

by JIM ALGIE

Plans for a regional food hub for Simcoe County have taken longer than initially expected; but that may be because the project’s scope keeps expanding, the county’s newly-appointed economic development director said Friday.

“It’s not so much that it’s growing; I think it’s our understanding of how large a question we’re asking,” Rachel Sullivan said in an interview about progress to date on the county’s food hub study. The county and a large group of interested agricultural organizations announced a feasibility study in June of 2013 and solicited feedback to the concept.

Although a county statement at the time predicted an autumn report, preliminary findings remain largely “raw data,” Sullivan said. A former economic development officer in the Town of Innisfil, Sullivan only recently took over the county’s top economic development job.

Because Innisfil is part of Simcoe County and a strong supporter of the food hub, Sullivan is familiar with project details. She spoke strongly about potential spinoffs from any future hub but warned of the project’s complexity.

“Those initial findings have turned up more questions and enlightened us to some additional research we need to do,” Sullivan said.

The county has commissioned further research by a Barrie-based, Georgian College faculty group on a range of possible organizational models and their suitability for Simcoe County which includes the important, vegetable growing area at Holland Marsh. The Georgian College report is expected this spring.

Work to date has identified a range of operating food hubs in the United States in addition to the existing, provincially-owned Ontario Food Terminal in Etobicoke. What remains is to determine how each model might apply to Simcoe circumstances, Sullivan said.

Questions remain about feasibility, site selection, regulatory issues, operating systems and governance.

“When you start to dig into it, you get to what type of governance should be applied, who should take ownership of this, should it be producer-driven, should it be run entirely by a private sector entity?

“There are large, fundamental questions we need to answer,” Sullivan said. Even so, she remains supportive of the hub concept because improved transport and distribution for agricultural products could lead to value-added processing for the region.

“When you start developing a cluster there could be incredible opportunities around the entire agriculture industry,” Sullivan said. BF