Northern Ontario businesses showcased at Royal Agricultural Fair

Morning North6:46Sudbury greenhouse business at Royal Agricultural Fair

Northern Ontario is once again making a splash at the Royal Agricultural Fair in Toronto. We checked in with Jenny Fortier, the vice president of Greenhouses Canada which is one of the businesses being featured at the Ontario pavillion.

Each year, the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto attracts thousands of people to check out the animal barns, food vendors and businesses from northern Ontario.

FedNor sponsors a pavilion each year to showcase businesses from the north, and a relatively new businesses, Greenhouses Canada, which has offices in Sudbury and Espanolahas a booth this year.

"Our focus really is on increasing the amount of local food available in northern Ontario," vice-president Jenny Fortier said.

"We do consulting on indoor growing facilities. We sell indoor growing equipment which is really the focus of what our folks are showing at the Royal Agricultural Fair."

Fortier says the business has a vertical, indoor growing setup featured at the fair that can hold 40 plants per square foot. She said the system can be small enough to provide fresh produce for your family, or can be set up on a larger scale for commercial production.

"If you picture a door that's the panel we're using and on each side of the panel there's little holes with the plants all the way up," she said.

"It's a simple concept. We're just taking the plants and we're orienting and we're using vertical space rather than just horizontal."

According to FedNor, more than 50 businesses from northern Ontario are featured at the fair. The fair runs at the Enercare Centre in Toronto until November 13. More than 320,000 people are expected to attend.

A full list of northern Ontario businesses at the fair can be found here.