New grocery delivery service in Ottawa brings local products close to home

Tibet Erkan takes out her Lufa Farms grocery order. (Dylan Dyson/CTV News Ottawa)

The battle over tariffs has more people looking close to home for their grocery orders and a new subscription-based grocery service that promises almost exclusively Canadian products is expanding into Ottawa.

Lufa Farms is a Montreal-based company that has grown vegetables on rooftop greenhouses since 2010. Weekly subscribers to the grocery delivery service can choose their produce and items online and have it delivered to their door.

The website sells items like fruits and vegetables, meats, cheeses and prepared foods.

Kanata resident Tibet Erkan used to use the service when she lived in Quebec but was unable to use it when she moved to Ottawa. Since they launched in the city on March 4, she has since resubscribed.

“It’s something important for me, to be self-sufficient,” she said in an interview with CTV News. “And then this practical - I can just order online and the next day, I have my groceries (at) my door.”

CEO Mohamed Hage says the company owns four rooftop greenhouses and one indoor farm.

Hage says what it doesn’t grow or produce is sourced from local farms and bakeries.

“95 per cent of all the products that we sell on our marketplace are Canadian,” he said. “And a lot of them are actually from our own greenhouses and the farmers that are within about 200 kilometres from where our warehouse is.”

But local has its limits.

Hage says that five per cent has to be sourced from other countries, including the United States, for items like oranges because certain items can’t be produced affordably in Canada.

It’s largest Montreal-based greenhouse spans 160,000 sq. ft. It can grow more than 100 vegetable varieties in them and 215,000 vegetables can be harvested each week.

Hage says the shipping to Ottawa market is sustainable because everything is centralized.

“It’s important for us to be able to grow food where people live,” said Hage. “By growing food on rooftops, we’re able to grow using no new land, about half the energy, because we got a lot of heat from the building below.

To deliver to Ottawa, the website says customers have to order a minimum of $55 each week along with a $6 delivery fee.

The company says there is no cost to the subscription itself, and it can also be paused and cancelled at any time at no additional charge.