The Rural Voice, 1980-05, Page 10Gordon Hill, chairman of the Ontario Bean Producers' Marketing
Board discusses various aspects of marketing white beans, after
his recent trip to Europe.
(Photo by Gunby)
Mission: Marketing the white bean
Ontario's white bean producers sell 75 to
80 per cent of their crop on the export
market, and that means someone has to be
constantly on the lookout for new markets.
In March, Gordon Hill of Varna, former
OFA president and now chairman of the
Ontario Bean Producers' Marketing Board,
the board's manager, Charles Broadwell,
and representatives from three dealers -
The Ontario Bean Growers Co-op, the
Great Canadian Bean Company and W.G.
Thompson and Sons Ltd. visited iwo
countries in Eastern Europe. Their goal
was to persuade Yugoslavian and
Bulgarian buyers that Ontario white beans
were a commodity worth looking at.
PG. 8 THE RURAL VOICE/MAY 1980
BY ALICE GBB
Gordon Hill, who assumed the chair-
manship of the board two months ago
(when Murray Cardiff became MP for
Huron Bruce and resigned) _said at one
time Britain was the only export market for
Ontario beans, but this left growers too
"vulnerable" in the event something went
wrong with the British economy. Today
Ontario beans are sold to 28 countries
around the world, and the main
competition is from Michigan and
Ethiopian beans.
Last year when an Ontario Bcan
Producers Marketing Board delegation
attended a German trade fair, they learned
that Bulgaria and Yugoslavia might just be
a market foi white beans.
Beans are a staple of the Yugoslavian
diet. Gordon Hill said they not only saw a
lot more canned beans on store shelves in
the country, but they also found dried
beans occupied a good deal of shelf space,
even in smaller shops. He said he even saw
beans in pouches, ready to be boiled the
way we boil some of our frozen foods.
The problem facing Yugoslavia is that
production of their national dish seems to
bL dwindling.
Mr. Hill said growers in that country
often intermix their beans with corn, in a
row by row pattern. This means in harvest
the beans have to bo picked by hand.