NatureFresh Farms awarded for technology use

LEAMINGTON, ONTARIO, CANADA – NatureFresh Farms was recently named the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) Ingenious Award Winner for Small/Medium Private (Non-ICT) Category for 2016, according to a press release.

In order to compete economically, NatureFresh Farms invested in a complete rebuild of its information technology structure to be more operationally efficient.

“Energy costs have been dramatically reduced and quality and yield have improved due to the full automation of the greenhouses. It’s a great example of multiple technologies put together in order to produce a much lower cost of production and much higher quality product," said Ronan McGrath, Principal, Ronan McGrath & Associates, Selection Committee Member & Past President, ITAC.

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“We are very pleased to be recognized by the Information Technology Association of Canada for this prestigious award," said Peter Quiring, Owner and President of NatureFresh. “The diversity of technologies needed to bring NatureFresh Farms to where we are today makes us a leading and innovative business. As an example, we implemented traceability technology by barcoding every vegetable we grow before it was a legislative requirement, and this was just the start.”

Given the size of its operation across multiple sites in two different countries, NatureFresh needed real-time access to support its teams. The ability to remote into the growing infrastructure systems gave NatureFresh growers direct access to their crops via smartphone or tablet.

“Our information technology overhaul touched all aspects of NatureFresh Farms. From our sales and administrative teams who were provided with new and more reliable tools that could be remotely controlled, updated or fixed, to the production line that was handling the product directly”, said Keith Bradley, IT Manager. 

NatureFresh says use of technology has not only improved overall connectivity to its growing operations, but it has also leveraged the opportunity for greater data collection and knowledge sharing across the company. Reducing operational costs is the goal while increasing overall quality to the customer.

For more information, visit naturefresh.ca

Photos courtesy of NatureFresh Farms