The rapid pace with which greenhouse construction is apparently slowing down for several reasons.
According to Cuesta Roble (Oak Hills) Consulting’s 2018 report, there are 894 greenhouse vegetable companies in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, according to Cuesta Roble (Oak Hill) Consulting’s 2019 report. The study is named, Greenhouse Vegetable Producing Companies North America.
Greenhouse proponents say the structures offer better protection from the unpredictability of weather, outdoor pests and contamination and indoor growing of all kinds offers more reliability and consistency.
In 2012, there was 98 million square feet of greenhouse vegetable production in the U.S. specifically, according to the USDA.
In Canada, greenhouses produced 612.8 million pounds of tomatoes in 2017, the latest number available, according to Statistics Canada. That is more than 14 million pounds above 2016’s production level and about 35 million above 2015.
But the typical annual 7 percent increase in acreage experienced by the 201 grower members of the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers Association isn’t expected to continue into 2019. Ontario accounts for about 80 percent of the entire Canadian greenhouse output.
And it is not just the cannabis explosion taking up space.
The whole process of expansion has gotten more complicated. There are growing uncertainties of what land municipalities will serve for greenhouse production.
The time it takes to build a greenhouse has jumped from 24 months to 40 months due to issues ranging from land purchase and rising building costs. As demand increases, so does the demand on resources.
Cannabis production is demanding on current resources. These resources can mean everything from steel, to municipality services, to construction workers.