Lufa Farms partners with Walmart to grow and sell greenhouse produce

With Walmart Canada, Montreal's Lufa Farms will grow produce under a 127,000 square foot greenhouse roof.

A partnership involving Lufa Farms is giving buying local a whole new meaning.

“We want to use free space in the cities where the people are and live,” says Lionel Trombert, Lufa Farms vice-president of finance.

With Walmart Canada, the food company is taking produce from local to hyperlocal under one 127,000 square foot greenhouse roof.

“Whatever is being grown here is being picked and harvested at night and given to our customers either through the Lufa websites and, in this case, through the Walmart kiosk downstairs on a fresh basis every morning,” Trombert says.

From cucumbers to peppers, it’s the first time Lufa Farms produce is being sold through a retailer.

This is also the first time that Walmart Canada is selling produce from its own roof.

On top of filling a demand to buy locally, the partnership is a solution that offers sustainability.

“Land and water have become scarce resources and hydroponic systems usually typically consumes only about 5 to 10 per cent of the water of a land farm,” says Trombert.

Their site at Marché Central is pesticide-free and you won’t find soil or dirt. Instead, you’ll find a hydraulic system that’s responsible for producing four tonnes of crops each day.

The location was chosen as the perfect basis for the project’s roots, due to its size and proximity to neighbourhoods.

Walmart Canada market leader Jacinthe Langevin says the company purchased more than $3.8 billion worth of products from 460 Quebec retailers last year.

“We are so proud to add Lufa Farms officially to that list,” she said.

The hope is that the project will keep growing.

“There’s an ask from customers and we’ve experienced that when we first sold those products ... we sold out almost every day,” Langevin told CTV.