Wasabi grown locally for restaurants and medicine

As ‘locally grown’ becomes increasingly important on restaurant menus, a Vancouver Island company is taking this literally by planning wasabi greenhouses for local sushi restaurants.

Pacific Coast Wasabi Ltd, has begun building the greenhouses at a 35-acre site and will start to grow wasabi there next year.  To satisfy demand, it will grow 7,300 kilograms every 15 months, generating $2 million in gross revenue.

Normally, the spicy root is grown in riverbeds in Japan but supply problems following the nuclear accident there have prompted Pacific Coast to grow their own.  The Pacific Coast farm will be the first commercial-scale operation in North America and possibly the world.

Many years of research were invested in developing a new greenhouse technology to grow the wasabi which will also be used in the biomedical industry to treat eczema and allergies.

Gabriel Ash’s Robin Parker commented: “We commend local growing – it saves on food miles and can often be organic.  Using the produce for food and medicine are worthy causes.”

For more information about wasabi, or the greenhouse project, visit Pacific Coast Wasabi’s websiteor see the news report at http://metronews.ca/news/victoria/447103/north-americas-first-wasabi-greenhouse-finds-perfect-home-in-nanaimo/

Author: Robert Smith