Scientist sets out to increase lingonberry acres

Canada’s cranberry industry is surprisingly large.

In 2020, the farmgate value of cranberries (grown mostly in Quebec and British Columbia) was $155 million. That’s bigger than the farmgate value of strawberries ($127 million) and not far behind grapes ($187 million)

An Agriculture Canada scientist is convinced that another red berry, which is extremely healthy and tasty, could record similar sales or maybe exceed cranberry revenues.

But there’s one problem.

Almost no one in Canada grows lingonberries.

“I would eat them every day,” said Chris Siow, an Agriculture Canada scientist in Winnipeg. “But there’s no supply.”

In late January, Siow invited an Agriculture Canada communications specialist and a reporter to his laboratory at the St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg to learn about his research on lingonberries.