Pioneers of high-tech vegetable growing

Mastronardi Starts Super-Greenhouse Trend

Paul Mastronardi, President and CEO and the fourth-generation family member to lead Mastronardi Produce, has carried on the family legacy of demonstrated leadership in sustainability and greenhouse innovation. His great grandfather, Armando Mastronardi, immigrated to North America in the 1920s and purchased his own farm in Leamington, Ontario. In the 1940s, Paul's grandfather, Umberto Mastronardi, traveled to Holland and brought the knowledge of greenhouse technology back with him, where he then built the first commercial greenhouse in North America.

Umberto was a visionary and innovator, pioneering the movement of introducing European product to the North American market and providing consumers with fresh produce year-round. In fact, he brought back the English cucumber seed from Holland upon his visit in the 1940s. In 1954, Mastronardi Produce was established and began growing greenhouse produce exclusively.

Paul's father, Don Mastronardi, took over the business at 25 after the unexpected passing of his father, Umberto. The company had recently acquired Detroit-based Harry Becker Produce Co., which allowed them to rapidly expand their business into the U.S. market. Don spent long hours on both sides of the border, leading sales and customer service at Harry Becker from the early morning hours until noon and then returning to Leamington to work the greenhouse operation.

Paul Mastronardi grew up in the industry and has worked in every aspect of the business, starting with building boxes at the age of 10. He went to school for physics but decided to return to the greenhouse business when he realized he didn't want to solve math problems his whole life.

When Paul was growing up, Leamington was a mecca of 5- to 10-acre greenhouse operations. Don Mastronardi built the first, 50-acre, super-greenhouse operation in 1994. At the time, it was the largest greenhouse and the first of its kind in North America. Paul says he remembers how concerned the Leamington greenhouse community was about the inherent risk of a larger operation. Instead, it accelerated growth, and 20-acre expansions soon became the norm.

Hooking the Consumer on Flavor

As Paul shadowed his father and learned the business, the overall message he heard from customers was that people wanted fruits with more flavor, even though the industry was chasing larger size and shelf life. He traveled to Holland to see what varieties seed companies offered and ended up bringing back a flavorful, golf-ball-sized tomato. The tomato was so different from what consumers were used to that he realized branding was needed to help it stand out. He launched the company's first branded tomato — Campari — in 1995, and it worked. Campari is now one of the top selling cocktail tomatoes in the U.S. Other products marketed under the company's SUNSET brand, including Splendido, the first greenhouse-grown grape tomato, Angel Sweet, and Flavor Bombs tomatoes, soon followed.

"I have learned that once a consumer is hooked on flavor, you're guaranteed repeat sales," Mastronardi says. "We take pride in consistently producing flavorful tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and berries."

Mastronardi Produce continues to grow and has more than 5,000 acres of controlled-environment productive growing capacity spread across Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. The company owns seven greenhouses and six distribution centers, and directly employs more than 3,000 people, while working with hundreds of grower partners. It has expanded its product offerings to include tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, eggplants, lettuce, and berries.

The company is currently building the largest single-build, high-tech greenhouse in North America, located in Oneida, NY, where it will grow strawberries, tomatoes, and cucumbers. The 70-acre facility will be fully operational by May, with available growing space totaling 64 acres. It will have the latest technology, including revolutionary automation equipment in the harvesting and functional support areas. The Oneida site is big enough that the facility could conceivably double in size as the company continues to grow.

Sustainability and Traceability Efforts Ahead of Their Time

Despite continued growth, Mastronardi Produce hasn't lost sight of its commitment to sustainability. The hanging-gutter system installed in its greenhouses allows it to capture leach off the plants and recycle 99% of unused water and fertilizer instead of discharging it into the water table. The greenhouses collect rainwater in giant basins, UV treat it, and reuse it over and over again, and the plants are fed water through a drip irrigation system, ensuring they get the exact amount of water they need. These sustainable practices result in significantly lower water usage — up to 10 times less than field farms.

On the packaging side, the company started efforts to reduce plastic use well before it was a focus for retailers and consumers. It introduced Top Seal technology more than 10 years ago, an innovation that allowed it to reduce its clamshell plastic by 20% to 25%. Soon, Mastronardi Produce will introduce starch-based material to the market and fully backyard compostable packaging that doesn't need industrial heat or excessive moisture for the breakdown.

Mastronardi was also one of the first produce companies to initiate product traceability back to the farm. Its strong traceability program was featured on CNN in 2008. The traceability program requires all products packed under the SUNSET label to contain product origin information, as well as a farm code, to trace back to the greenhouse of its origin. The company also runs an onsite laboratory to conduct daily safety tests on its produce.

Much like it did with the tomato category, Mastronardi Produce plans to revolutionize the berry industry by offering more unique and flavorful greenhouse-grown choices to consumers.

Mastronardi Produces High-Tech Berries Under Cover

With the pesticide issues that landed strawberries on the Dirty Dozen list, inconsistencies in quality and supply, labor shortages, and trucking issues, bringing berry production into the protected agriculture space seemed like a logical move. In 2003, Paul pioneered high-tech berry growing, and after a seven-year learning curve, he officially launched premium, greenhouse strawberries that are virtually pesticide-free.

More recently, Paul started working with the international company BerryWorld to further bring berries into the protected ag space. The resulting partnership between Mastronardi Produce and BerryWorld was the perfect marriage, with BerryWorld providing the genetics and breeding expertise and Mastronardi Produce supplying the greenhouse facilities and the North American distribution network. Together, they are revolutionizing the berry category, much in the same way Mastronardi Produce did with tomatoes.

"When the first greenhouse tomato came out, everyone said no one would pay for it because it was twice as expensive as anything produced in the field," Paul says. "Over the last 70 years, we increased production, improved flavor, and brought the product to a price point affordable for consumers. I believe that experience will help us get to the point where the masses see the value of a greenhouse berry over a field berry even faster within the berry category."

New Project Brings Fresh, Locally Grown Produce to the Middle East

Finding and implementing innovative technology has long been part of Mastronardi Produce's growth strategy. It trials everything from crop robots in their infancy to artificial intelligence (AI) technology in its greenhouses. One tech project the company is currently involved with is its Green International Ventures LLC (GIVE) partnership with John Paul DeJoria, co-founder of John Paul Mitchell Systems and Patrón Spirits. The project will make locally grown, fresh produce more widely available around the globe using a proprietary Advanced High-Density Farming System, which incorporates a multitude of cutting-edge growing systems such as water-saving irrigation and energy-efficient lighting, advanced automation and robotic devices, AI processes for predictive analysis, and real-time crop and soil monitoring.

"People fail to realize that with certain crops, greenhouses are one of the most sustainable, high-tech vertical farms available," Paul says. "A greenhouse is not just measured in area per square feet, it's also measured in cubic feet. A lot of these vertical farm companies are trying to rethink something that is already working."

What It Takes to Bring the First Striped Pepper to Market

Mastronardi Produce's striped Aloha peppers have a super sweet taste and keep their stripes, even when cooked. The variety is 100% nature-created, but the company had to go to some extraordinary efforts to bring it to market.

President and CEO Paul Mastronardi says after a harvester showed them a pepper that was half red and half yellow, they searched the greenhouse for the plant it came from but couldn't find anything. Two years went by and another harvester brought a striped pepper to them. An exhaustive search of plants in the greenhouse again turned up nothing.

Finally, Paul consulted some European breeders who determined the rare occurrence happened only on one node of the plant, so Paul hired scouts who spent the next two years running up and down the greenhouse before harvesting to see if they could spot one of the unusual peppers while it was still on the plant. They eventually discovered the elusive node, and that was the start of Aloha peppers. The peppers have been on the market for about two years with limited supplies available while Mastronardi works to build up availability.

Source: Greenhouse Grower
Photos: Mastronardi Produce

Source: Greenhouse Grower