Progest / Sembec / Fancy Pak / Downey Farms / Cohn Farms
Five
best-of-breed companies, one mission.Imagine the A-Team of agricultural sustainability and you’ve got the core companies of The Honest Potato Company. For the first time, retailers and foodservice companies can be sure that every step in the food chain, from seed to table and back to the land is being performed by an established leader, and integrated in a protected, waste-reducing eco-system of food production.

- Established: 2001
- Genetic improvement program specializing in developing new potato varieties
- Research into fertilization, storage and more

Advanced seed
research transforming the potato landscape.
“We’ve cut the introduction time of new varieties from 8-15 years to 4 years.”
André Gagnon Progest/Sembec
Standing at the forefront of potato breeding innovation in Canada, Progest’s goal is to transform potato farming through comprehensive solutions and research that extend far beyond traditional boundaries.
Its research farm in Ste-Croix-de-Lotbinière, Quebec conducts groundbreaking exploration into developing new potato varieties, as well as fertilization and manure trials, pest control research and experimental storage. Drought resistance and increased disease resistance are also priorities, and its varietal development program emphasizes genetic improvement, resulting in proprietary varieties like the renowned Alliston.
Specializing in Table potatoes, process potato & chip potato varieties, Progest is shaping the future with bold breakthroughs. Its pioneering hybrid breeding research has shortened the introduction of new varieties from the traditional 8-15 years to just four years.
Progest also believes in closely collaborating with growers, getting to the root of their problems and spotting new opportunities. This means helping them improve their warehousing processes to maintain peak seed potato quality, cutting loss and waste. It also means working hand-in-hand to create exclusive varietals tailor-made to their unique markets, soils and other factors.
To learn more about Progest, contact André Gagnon:a.gagnon@progest2001.com
- Growing disease-free, high-growth seed potato of several varieties
- Supplying growers in Quebec, Ontario and Atlantic provinces
- Deeply involved in carbon capture and soil rest & recovery

Where seed
potatoes and land protection come together.Sembec was founded in 2018, but its farm goes back to the 1950’s, when challenges with European seed potatoes prompted governments to explore local, safe supplies.
Sembec is located on the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, in a perfect bio-isolation spot – hours from any other producer – which protects the seed stock from viruses and pathogens. Its in-vitro lab houses 30 varieties. Production starts in growth chambers, then moves to greenhouses to grow the nuclear class mini tubers, which are field-grown and distributed to growers.
Much of Sembec’s 3,500 acre farm is peatland, savannah and woods, creating physical barriers and protecting wildlife. Potato production uses 400 acres, with 100 acres in production per year.
Sembec practices comprehensive land rest and recovery. Each field gets planted only once every four years, and a newly-acquired adjacent farm provides longer crop rotations. Unused fields go to pasture or become fallow, their cover crops, grasses and grains providing a carbon sink that also helps regenerate the soil.
Lowering the carbon footprint is another priority: Sembec protects 300 acres of pristine peatland, a super-effective natural carbon sink that helps mitigate climate change. The company is also significantly augmenting its forest area.
To learn more about Sembec, contact André Gagnon:a.gagnon@progest2001.com

“Our site is a bio-isolation jewel, five hours from any other potato producer.”
André Gagnon Progest/Sembec
- Renowned for premium, clean early potatoes
- White, yellow, red and creamer
- Peerless safety record and certification A leader in speed-to-market and the season’s earliest crop.

A leader in
speed-to- market and the season’s earliest crop.
“Our potatoes love the warm sands of Norfolk County, which gives us an early and very clean looking spud.”
Nicole Comella Fancy Pak
In the world of specialty potato growers, Fancy Pak takes special pride in its early crop availability, being the first to bring the season’s bounty of hotly-anticipated “early potatoes” to the Canadian market every summer.
Nestled in the warm sands of Lake Erie’s North Shore in Southwestern Simcoe, Ontario, Fancy Pak harvests, packs and ships its potatoes daily, going from soil to market within 24 hours. Their clean, premium white, red, and yellow varieties owe a lot to the region’s sandy soil, spread across a 500-acre cultivation area.
The locally-grown early potatoes also deliver significant environmental benefits over imports by reducing the need for long-distance transportation. And safety and quality aren’t just buzzwords at Fancy Pak: the company was an early adopter of the risk-reducing On-Farm, Food Safety (GAP) program, has been certified since 2006, and has implemented a complete traceability and recall program.
To learn more about Fancy Pak, contact Nicole Comella:nicole@fancypakbrand.com
- Fourth-generation family farm
- Large storage ensures year-round local supply
- Ongoing reduction efforts in water use, paper use and more

Marking 100 years of producing, packaging and possibilities.
Since 1924, the Downey family have harvested the world-class soils just north of Toronto, becoming a leader in potato farming, storing, packaging and marketing. And they’re only looking ahead.
Today, from their state-of-the-art grading and packing facility in Southern Ontario, Downey Farms supplies potatoes to retailers and food service companies across Canada, their large storage facility ensuring a year-round potato supply from both their fields and their growing partners.
Downey’s “grown for taste” potatoes deliver flavour year round and are always non-GMO. They also offer Certified Organic versions of many of their varieties, ensuring that nothing non-organic gets near them as they’re being grown. Among Downey’s many products is the Honest Potato Company’s own signature brand.
A century of benefiting from the land has led to a high degree of stewardship. Being located close to market helps keep transportation emissions low, they’ve significantly reduced water use through filtration and recycling systems, and even their bags use 15% less paper than traditional types, and can go straight to the blue bin when they’re empty.
To learn more about Downey Farms, contact Josh Bester:josh@downeyfarms.ca

“We want customers to say, ‘I like buying these potatoes because they’ve cut back on everything.”
Trevor Downey Downey Farms
- Fourth-generation family farm
- Large storage ensures year-round local supply
- Ongoing reduction efforts in water use, paper use and more

The processor
that’s redefining “waste not, want not.”
“We’re looking forward to changing the world one potato at a time.”
Keith Cohn Cohn Farms
Tackling food waste is one of the main reasons the Honest Potato Company was conceived, and Cohn Farms is one of our biggest weapons.
Born in the same year Canada turned 100, Cohn Farms’ leading-edge Alliston processing plant is where potatoes that may not win a beauty contest but are still delicious are sent, to be processed into French fries, diced potatoes, whole peeled potatoes and other styles. The products are then purchased by restaurants, institutions and food service providers. This reduces food loss in the supply chain, as well as the amount of organic waste sent to landfills.
The sustainability and waste-reduction benefits don’t end there. Their new Allison facility has Canada’s first waterless peelers. Carbon footprint is reduced by exclusively using local potatoes year-round. Another benefit comes from recycling organic matter: peels, scraps and organic matter are collected and turned into animal feed, or sent to a biodigester, which creates electricity as well as nutrient-rich fertilizer that goes back into the fields.
In creating their own biodiversity-promoting closed-loop, Cohn Farms can proudly say that they contribute zero organic waste to landfills.
To learn more about Cohn Farms, contact Samantha Stiebel:s.stiebel@cohnfarms.com