cover story
Growing a dream
Maan family’s farm-to-fork operation continues to expand and diversify. By Judie Steeves
K
ris and Devinder Maan of Maan Family Farms in Abbotsford have expressed two of the most important things in their lives in the name of their business: family and farm.
Not only have they grown and expanded their farming operation over the 27 years they’ve been together, they’ve raised four children. All of them work on the farm, but their parents have insisted they can’t go into the business until they have completed their educations. So, Amir is in agri- business as an exchange scholarship student at the University of Applied Sciences in Den Bosch, Holland, in his third year at the University of Fraser Valley. Preena is a social worker, Gurleen a criminology major and Gaurav is in first year business at UFV.
In India, Devinder was a teacher, as were Kris’s parents before they emigrated to B.C. in 1972, when he was 14 years of age.
His parents began farming in Abbotsford in 1977 near their present farm, growing on a couple of acres with a few berries.
Life was difficult, with the family living in cabins with no power and only outhouses instead of indoor plumbing, but they saved their money to purchase their first small farm, and then added to it whenever they could. They grew raspberries and cold climate crops such as Brussels sprouts and broccoli, leasing some land as well. Kris’s grandpa had a vision to sell his own produce to customers, and in 1982 they had built their first fruit stand on McKenzie Road, a 12x12-foot wooden stand where they sold their strawberries to the public.
“There was a good response, so they continued, selling more and more each year,” recalls Kris.
“We kept the quality good and offered food fresh right from the field. People asked for raspberries, then blueberries, so we gradually began to diversity,” he says. Today, they have 50 acres in total, with about half of that
6 British Columbia Berry Grower • Spring 2013 JUDIE STEEVES
Kris Maan in the strawberry section of the 50-acre Abbotsford operation.
in berries; 10 acres in corn, eight in pumpkins, two in squashes and another two in mixed vegetables. Although many things have changed, the commitment to providing good quality and service has not, the couple say. Kris is actually an engineer by trade, who worked for Snowcrest Foods since 1978, in recent years as chief engineer.
However, he is passionate about farming, and he and his wife enjoy working together on the farm.
They also have plans to continue to expand the operation. Last year, they completed construction of a new building to
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