Dauphin is calling a new greenhouse being built in the community “an economic development dream come true.” “This is something we haven’t seen before. Everybody’s excited,” said Martijn van Luijn, economic development officer with the City of Dauphin, located 166 kilometers north of Brandon, Canada.
The $32-million greenhouse will employ around 30 people by the time Phase 1 is completed, said Maria Deschauer, managing director of Vermillion Growers, the company building the facility. The company couldn’t provide a detailed timeline of the entire project but said once the greenhouse expands, the job number will be closer to 200.
For van Luijn, it’s not just the potential for employment that has the city excited about the new greenhouse, which Deschauer said will be the first of its kind in Manitoba. “I hope and predict that we will see some other spinoff businesses come from this as well,” van Luijn said, noting that such businesses could potentially include transportation, mechanical maintenance, and storage.
“First of all, we had to do a lot of research,” Deshauer said. “We needed to take a bit of time and educate our core team in terms of what a high-tech greenhouse looks like and how it operates.” To do this, Deschauer and her team worked closely with Looije Agro Technics, a consulting company from the Netherlands. “They were able to really help us determine what was the best structure and the best form of operations for our climate and location,” Deschauer said.
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