Greenhouse as Cornerstone: Joe Spano From Mucci Farms on the Future of the Canadian Food Supply

Recorded live and in person at the third annual Loblaw Supplier Summit, this episode of The FEED powered by Loblaw brings you Joe Spano, Managing Partner and Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Mucci Farms — one of North America's most deeply vertically integrated greenhouse growers. Mucci Farms began as a small family farm in Kingsville, Ontario in the early 1960s, founded by Tony and Gino Mucci in the Leamington-Kingsville corridor that remains Canada's greenhouse hot spot. Joe joined nearly 29 years ago as employee number one of the sales and marketing company, and with his partners took the business through succession starting in 1999. Today Mucci supplies Loblaw with vine crops — beefsteak tomatoes, tomatoes on the vine, cucumbers in every format, lettuce and strawberries — from a controlled-environment operation that now includes a 105-acre indoor strawberry facility producing Canadian berries nearly twelve months a year, pesticide free and herbicide free. That project began as a challenge Loblaw brought to Mucci around 2015. Joe is candid about what constrains greenhouse growth in Canada: the capital barrier to entry keeps rising, and power, utilities, labour and the border are what keep him up at night. On affordability, he reframes the conversation from cost to value, pointing to sell-through approaching 100 percent on beefsteak tomatoes and to strawberries that arrive fresh enough that consumers eat every berry in the punnet — less waste on shelf and less waste at home. He also pulls back the curtain on something rare in agriculture: an in-house marketing team with graphic designers and printers, operating like an ad agency inside the building, working alongside global seed companies to trial and launch new varieties. Looking ahead, Mucci is trialling blackberries and raspberries, pushing further into leafy greens, and testing Asian vegetables including Asian eggplant and bok choy. On winning a Loblaw vendor of the year award against much larger competitors, Joe credits a relationship spanning nearly three decades that has never felt transactional — joint trips to Holland to research strawberry varieties, calls at 8 p.m. and 6 a.m., and category teams that feel like family. His advice to suppliers is refreshingly plain: be patient, think like a customer, and look at the business from the retailer's point of view. Joe closes on the long game — a new long-term ownership partnership with Cox Farms of Atlanta, part of Cox Enterprises, and a hope that greenhouse growing is remembered as a cornerstone of accessible Canadian food supply. **About Your Host, Michael LeBlanc** **Michael LeBlanc** is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice. Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, *Remarkable Retail* with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast *The Voice of Retail* and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, *The Food Professor* with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax. Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025 and 2026. Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, *Last Request BBQ*, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok. Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.