IGA talks growth of Montreal green roof
Some of the organic produce sold in Richard Duchemin’s IGA store in Montreal travels only 44 steps before it reaches consumers.
Since 2017, the owner of IGA Extra Famille Duchemin in the Montreal borough of Saint-Laurent has been selling organic fare grown on his rooftop. He believes his large supermarket is the only one of its kind in Canada that grows produce on its roof and sells it below in-store.
“They’re hyper-local products that don’t travel by truck. For delivery, it’s 44 steps,” Duchemin says of the close to 40 varieties of vegetables and herbs harvested 20 feet above.
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Last year was dedicated to regenerating the growing areas on the roof. This year, planting space increased from 25,000 to 29,000 square feet, when an area that housed refrigeration systems was added.
The non-profit organization La Ferme de Rue Montréal was tapped to oversee the produce growing when La Ligne Verte, the previous urban farmer, decided to step away. The organization prepares the produce for market and ensures a constant supply from the rooftop to the grocer.
La Ferme de Rue Montréal got its start converting Montreal alleyways into gardens. “Their mission is to promote urban agriculture, something that’s close to my heart,” Duchemin says.
La Ferme hired 17 employees to harvest the rooftop produce this year, including newcomers to Montreal and students from the junior college Cégep de Victoriaville, who interned as part of their urban agriculture program.
Produce grown includes ground cherries, bell peppers, chili peppers, carrots, radishes, garlic, eggplant, tomatoes, spring mix and zucchini. The organic produce is Ecocert Canada-certified.
La Ferme gives 15% of the tonnage it grows to charities, such as food banks.
Duchemin buys the rest from La Ferme and sells it in store with the logo “Frais du toit” (fresh from the roof) and descriptor “Produits bios cultivés ici même” (organic products grown right here). A television provides a live feed from the roof and a video describes the farm above shoppers’ heads.
Prices are about the same as organic fare from elsewhere. (Squash, for example, was recently listed at $3.99/lb.) “My profit margins are comparable to those of the rest of the fruit and vegetable department.”
Sales in the summer of organic produce increase by 50% thanks to the harvest from above, he says. Duchemin has heard from customers who tell him they’ve gone out of their way to purchase some of the hyper-local produce.
Overstock is sold in Duchemin’s other IGA Extra on Le Corbusier Blvd. in Laval and Duchemin gives $100 worth of the rooftop produce per week to a local food bank.
The rooftop garden operates from April until the end of October. “A roof isn’t like a normal field,” he notes. “The snow melts faster than in a field. We can start the season earlier.”
Both Duchemin’s Sobeys banner and La Ferme are tenants of the building owned by developer Groupe Mach.
The idea for the rooftop garden came when the Saint-Laurent borough required that 50% of the building roof area be covered with a green roof system.
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“That constraint became an opportunity for us,” Duchemin says, noting he was inspired by firms like Lufa Farms, which builds rooftop urban farms.
The roof had to be able to support 30 centimetres of earth and absorb water. Still, the extra cost for the roof was not excessive: Duchemin notes the rent for his 52,000 square-foot store is comparable to that paid by other IGA stores with ordinary roofs.
Next year, plans for the IGA rooftop include the recovery of vegetable wash-water, cultivation of berries and edible flowers, and the installation of beehives.
