Fyffes purchases Highline Produce for $145M
By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com
Highline Produce Ltd., the largest mushroom producer in Canada, has been sold to Ireland’s Fyffes PLC for $145 million.
As part of the deal, Fyffes acquired 100 per cent control of Highline, but company operations will largely remain the same.
“I want to make it very clear, it’s business as usual,” Highline CEO Glenn Martin said in an interview with the Windsor Star.
The current management team will continue to run Highline’s facilities in Leamington, Kingsville, Bloomfield and Montreal; and the company’s 1,150 employees will remain on staff.
As Canada’s largest mushroom grower and the world’s largest organic mushroom producer, Highline sells more than 26 million kilograms of mushrooms annually.
Fyffes is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, has been in business for more than a century and is one of the largest fresh-food distributors in Europe. The company has operations on two other continents and last year’s revenues totaled approximately $1.8 billion.
David McCann, Fyffes chairman, said in a release that the company looks forward to working with the management staff at Highline to develop the business.
When it comes to mushrooms in Canada, Mushrooms Canada says white and brown mushrooms make up 90 per cent of the Canadian mushroom crop.
Canada produces about 105 million kilograms annually, with Ontario accounting for about 57 per cent of the total, followed by British Columbia at 27 per cent.
Join the discussion and tell us your opinion of Highline’s sale to Fyffes. If you’re a mushroom farmer, does it concern you in any way?