Ethnic Vegetable Import: Ethnic Vegetables In Canada

Import is the major sources of ethnic vegetables in Canada. According to Statistics Canada, 2015, Canadian government import vegetables that worth about $3.5 million, although the exact amount of ethnic vegetable import is not known. South Asian immigrants are cultivating their culturally appropriate vegetables in community gardens, allotment gardens, and their backyards; however, these are not sufficient. To meet the demand of ethnic vegetables, it is important to replace the import with commercial cultivation. Considering the market potential, local growers of traditional vegetables need to be shifted to the commercial cultivation of ethnic vegetables especially those which are suitable for commercial cultivation. An additional support from the government is essential to promote this. Vineland Research and innovation Centre is experimenting the commercial suitability of South Asian vegetables including okra eggplant and yard
long bean, however, before going forward the determination of financial viability and market feasibility is very important to find right marketing pathways. Additionally, a lot of South Asian vegetables are not recognized yet. For example red amaranth, bitter gourd, bottle gourd.

Ontario Food Terminal (OFT) is the largest distributor of fruit and vegetables in Ontario.
Large superstores have distribution center at the OFT. Most of the ethnic grocery stores collected world vegetables from OFT and a very little amount the collect from small ethnic vegetable’s growers. But the labeling of these ethnic vegetables is not ensured to the local consumers other than South Asian often confused regarding the quality of the vegetables. A legal institutional framework is like OFT needs to maintain the quality of ethnic vegetables. The government should set up specific sections of locally grown ethnic vegetables. A large chain supermarket for example lab laws, Sobeys and Metro has some contract farmers or their cooperatives from they collect local vegetables. Vineland research center has already signed some contract with some chain stores. This opportunity should be created for small, medium and large ethnic vegetable farmers for free access to this supply chain so that they can supply this fresh produce directly to the
stores.

A large number of community initiatives have already been taken by various organizations to increase the access of ethnic vegetables. For example, the Stop community garden (farmers market, Community gardens, learning gardens live cooking program, Food share, these programs are city centered and the people living in low-income areas do not have access to these programs (TFPC, 20130. The city of Toronto has 110 allotment gardens and 45 community garden across the city. These community gardens increased the access of local fresh foods and also triggers social and economic benefits (Wakefield et al., 2007).