Oxford Frozen Foods of Nova Scotia, Silver Valley Farms of Maple Ridge, British Columbia and EDEM Inc, a new company from Bathurst, have their sights set on the former Tracadie shooting range to grow blueberries there wild.
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These companies are bidders for blueberry production projects on the former Tracadie shooting range.
A field of wild blueberries from Oxford Frozen Foods.
Photo: Radio-Canada / René Landry
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These are calls for tenders for producers with the “processing” section.
Oxford Frozen Foods, Nova Scotia’s wild blueberry processing giant, already has a strong presence in the Acadian Peninsula. In 2016, it opened a factory in Bois-Gagnon, near Saint-Isidore.
Sivler Valley Farms in British Columbia describes itself on its website as one of the largest growers, buyers and distributors of blueberries in North America
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Three blueberry producers have submitted proposals in order to be able to operate land on the former Tracadie shooting range.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Tanya Neveu
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This company indicates that its work is produce the juiciest, plumpest and healthiest blueberries possible
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Little is known about the new company, Edem Inc, of Bathurst, except that it was created last December. Its president, Daniel Paulin, prefers to wait until the entire project allocation process is completed before saying more.
The Minister of Agriculture meets opponents
In addition, the Minister of Agriculture, Margaret Johnson, is scheduled to meet this Friday in Fredericton with the president of the Tracadie Hunting and Fishing Club, Mathieu Allard, and the representative of the northeast zone of the New Brunswick Wildlife Federation. Brunswick, Gilles Sonier.
Demonstration in Tracadie on February 5, 2022, against blueberry fields on the former Tracadie shooting range.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Yves Levesque
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The latter, who fear damage to the environment, will try to convince the minister to backtrack and drop the idea of allowing the operation of new blueberry fields on the old Tracadie shooting range.
Meanwhile, National Defense’s controversial clearing and decontamination work on this provincial property is still on hold.
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