Chatham-Kent’s agriculture sector is getting a big boost with this week’s announcement of a new Whyte’s Foods plant setting up shop in Wallaceburg. 
Cathy Lennon is the General Manager of the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers, and says this week’s announcement is tremendous news for Chatham-Kent’s ag sector.
“We’ve seen a lot of processing capacity exit the industry, not just in vegetables but in fruit over the years, and what that has meant in a number of cases is that growers have exported raw products into the United States to see it processed into finished goods and brought back into Canada,” Lennon explains. “This is great news to have processing capacity nearby for logistics, for delivery, for jobs, to have grown in Canada and processed in Canada product.”
Whyte’s will be running its Wallaceburg facility year round, with production ramping up during the summer months.
“We have a tremendous selection of vegetables, both for the fresh market and the processing market,” Lennon says. “A number of our growers that grow pickles also grow peppers, and a number of products that would be of interest to Mrs Whyte.”