Fifth Scotia Horticultural Congress Starts

More than 200 participants have converged on the Holiday Inn in Dartmouth to discuss challenges and opportunities facing the province's $100-million horticultural industry.

The fifth annual Scotia Horticultural Congress, which starts today and runs until Thursday evening, brings together vegetable and berry growers, processors, financial experts, researchers, retailers and policy makers for a trade show, presentations and discussions on such topics as marketing and promotion, research, new technologies, farm safety and opportunities in new products, like hemp. Horticulture Nova Scotia, host of the congress, will also be holding its annual meeting.

"The horticulture industry is key to the success of Nova Scotia agriculture in general," said Agriculture and Marketing Minister Ed Lorraine, who will be addressing the closing banquet. "This industry has been growing at a steady rate and there are opportunities for future growth. Such growth will mean a stronger rural economy and jobs for Nova Scotians. This congress brings the people together who can make that growth happen."

The theme of this year's congress is New Horizons as the industry looks to the future and faces the pressures of an increasingly global marketplace, advancing technologies, changes in weather patterns and increasing consumer demands. How to overcome these challenges and capitalize on new opportunities will be the focus of the congress, said Mr. Lorraine.

The keynote speaker is Patricia Ripley, deputy minister of the Nova Scotia Petroleum Directorate, who will discuss the impact of natural gas on agriculture. Other speakers include Finance Minister Don Downe and Stephen Rodrigues, a division vice-president with Sobeys Inc.

The province's horticulture industry supports the equivalent of 3,000 full-time jobs and accounted for more than five per cent of total horticultural sales in Canada in 1997. The farm value of horticultural product sales in Nova Scotia tops $100 million annually.