Louis Dionne, Managing Director of the Federation of greenhouse producers of Quebec, underlines that contrary to this year, the last few winters were mild. According to the information that he has gathered, the energy costs were about 30% higher in December. And the trend certainly hasn't changed since the beginning of January!
Whether the greenhouse farmers heat with oil, biomass or electricity, they have turned the heat all of the way up to make their tomatoes grow. And if only about twenty of the 600 producers are producing year round, others in the ornamental sector are getting ready to let their seedlings flower.
''We try not to look at it by the month'', says Jacques Demers, CEO of Demers Greenhouses. The businessman knows that the heating bills will be steep. He currently has tomatoes being harvested in his greenhouse in Drummondville and young tomato plants, peppers and aubergines in Saint-Nicolas. "The most stressful part is making sure that we don't have problems with the heating equipment, that it all works and ''that we don't have bad luck''. Marie Gosselin, head of the Savoura greenhouses, shares this wish and says that the maintenance crews did not get much time off over the festivities.
The cold weather does not only affect the heating, but also the lightning. At Savoura, large isolation curtains are hung from the ceilings to keep in as much heat as possible, but this affects the light that is let in.
Another annoyance: the government's programme, which from this year allows cost reductions for lighting, is interrupted. In a time of great demand, Hydro-Quebec has told greenhouse growers that in order to reduce the demand, their bills will be multiplied by…..10.
