Thank you.
Good morning, panel. I'll give you some history of the Red Hat Co-operative. It will give you some idea of what we're about.
The Red Hat Co-operative grades, packages, distributes, and markets greenhouse-grown vegetables for grower members. At present, Red Hat Co-operative Ltd. has 52 shareholders. It represents greenhouse owners and operators in southeast Alberta.
In 2012, Red Hat Co-operative will market over five million cases of greenhouse vegetables, representing over $55 million in annual sales. Each year our growers produce over 20 million cucumbers, 14 million pounds of tomatoes, and four million pounds of peppers. Within our packaging facility, we employ over 200 employees. As well, an additional 600-plus work in the greenhouses.
Red Hat Co-operative was established in 1966 by 10 growers who saw the importance of coming together as producers and of sharing resources. Not only have they been able to jointly operate a 100,000-square-foot packaging plant, but they have been able to invest in grading and handling equipment that is the first of its kind in North America.
This ability to grow together has also helped in marketing to large national retailers that demand quality and service. Today, Red Hat brand products can be found in Safeway, Loblaws, Costco, Sobeys, Overwaitea, and many other grocery chains.
The success of Red Hat Co-operative can be attributed to our providing value to our grower shareholders. In addition to providing an efficient method of marketing the produce, Red Hat also purchases bulk inputs for all of its members. It trains people, monitors food safety programs, and supports research projects to drive innovation in our industry.
Over the last five years, the greenhouse industry has seen extensive growth and competition from domestic producers as well as from the U.S. and Mexico. Because of the increased competition, it is important that co-ops similar to ours be given all the opportunities traditional companies are granted.
One example of where we see an unfair advantage for our competition within Canada is in temporary foreign worker programs. These programs have proven critical for our industry, since we are faced with seasonal labour demands as well as a hot and agriculture-based working environment.
Our competitors that operate similar packaging facilities on their farms are able to hire temporary foreign workers under the farm program, whereas Red Hat is unable to apply, since our operation is not considered farming, even though we can argue that our growers cannot market their produce unless it is graded and packaged. This process is considered agricultural, and is thus farming. So in this case, we feel that we are being penalized for forming a cooperative to collectively grade and market our agricultural product.
In conclusion, we continue to be strong advocates for cooperatives and the value they provide for smaller producers in marketing their goods in a market dominated by large retail buyers. We ask that the committee not restrict cooperatives but give them the same opportunities traditional companies get.
Agriculture cooperatives have been the backbone of our nation for many years, since they place ownership and control with the producer. We ask that policies that encourage and strengthen cooperatives continue to be a priority for the federal government in the future.
That's a bit of the history. We want to stress the part about the cooperatives not being considered farms and not being able to hire foreign workers. That's probably our biggest issue as a co-op, and it is quite substantial.
We were a little unprepared for this whole meeting, so we don't have a whole lot more. We're relying more on your questions for us, if that's what it takes.
That's probably one of our biggest issues. I don't know if Doyle wants to add to that.