Organic greenhouse crop production

摘要

It's one of the fastest growing sectors in agriculture, with double-digit sales increases in recent years. U.S. sales of organic products increased 20 per cent annually between 1990 and 2000, at which time they represented a 7.8 billion dollar US market, with near-term increases of 15-20 per cent expected. An additional change is that about half of these sales occur in conventional supermarkets, as opposed to natural products retailers. Since there are few large suppliers of organic tomatoes, greenhouse or otherwise, and prices for organic produce are usually higher, organic greenhouse production could be an attractive alternative. Sales of greenhouse tomatoes have also increased dramatically during this period, as has greenhouse acreage, increasing the percentage of greenhouse tomatoes sold relative to field grown, but also increasing competition. Organic production is also attractive to greenhouse growers because most of them are already virtually pesticide-free.