DISPLACED BY ROBOTS: Prince Edward County mushroom plant closing down

A still image taken from a promotional video of the manufacturer whose technology is key to the new Leamington mushroom plant that is displacing Highline Mushrooms’ Prince Edward County plant.

Farmers Forum staff

PICTON — Highline Mushrooms will shut down its Prince Edward County production facility by the end of the year, eliminating 300 Eastern Ontario jobs as the company brings a new state-of-the-art robotic mushroom plant online in Southwestern Ontario.

The impending closure of Highline’s Wellington plant roughly coincides with the expected debut of its new ‘Farm of the Future’ in Leamington, according to the Picton Gazette.

The new facility features artificial-intelligence-enhanced robots that pluck the mushrooms from automated mushroom drawers that move into place for harvest. Highline announced the project a year ago with robots supplied by Mycionics of Putnam, Ontario, and automation by Dutch-based Christiaens Group.

Employees at the Wellington plant, including just over 250 harvest staff — many of them contracted through the temporary foreign worker program — will be out of a job on Dec. 12, the Gazette reported. Highline’s vice-president of human resources Brian McCarthy told the publication that the company made the “difficult decision” to close the aging plant “as it no longer meets our long-term safety standards and evolving operational needs.”

A subsidiary of Highline Produce Ltd, the company purchased the former Campbell’s soup plant site in the early 1990s.

Highline Mushrooms is Canada’s biggest mushroom producer and the reputed largest organic mushroom producer in the world.

In a post on the X social media platform, Prince Edward County Mayor Steve Ferguson said he was “gutted” to learn of the impending shutdown by “one of the largest employers” in his municipality. “Its loss will be felt in the local economy and the broader community…. Challenges undoubtedly lie ahead, but I am hopeful we can rebound and build on the strengths we currently possess.”

In related fallout for local farmers, the plant also consumed about $1 million worth of wheat straw annually, according to the Gazette.

The end of production in Wellington consolidates the company’s Ontario mushroom output in Leamington, where it was founded in 1961, and Kingsville. Highline also operates a Montreal mushroom plant plus eight sites in Western Canada.

Mushroom production by all Ontario growers increased by almost 32 % between 2015 and 2024, according to Statistics Canada. Full-time employment in the sector rose 56 %.