How this three-generation farm helped turn Quebec into a cranberry superpower

In the early 1990s, Denis Bédard took a helicopter ride over Massachusetts’ cranberry fields that would set his family’s way of life at home in Quebec for the next two generations.

His first thought was: “My God, there must be a lot of money in cranberries,” according to Denis’s son Patrick Bédard. Denis’s next thought: how could he bring the cranberry business to la belle province?

Denis left the fertilizer plant he was running at the time, bought 50 acres in Villeroy 80 kilometres west of Quebec City and planted his first cranberry crops in 1992. He gave the new venture an eponymous name paired with the French word for the tart, red fruit: Atocas Bédard. “He was the fourth grower in Quebec,” says Patrick, who today is the enterprise’s president. “Now there are about 80 of us.”

With Patrick’s wife and two sons operating Atocas Bédard as well, they are fulfilling Denis’s dream that successive generations would also be drawn to the quality of life agriculture yields, even as pressures such as climate change, shipping delays, trade uncertainty and the rising cost of fertilizer bear down on a plant that is tricky to grow.

The company, now with 350 acres of crop, is among Quebec’s largest producers and is a driving force behind the province’s development into a cranberry superpower. “Denis was one of the pioneers,” says Vincent Godin, president of the Quebec Cranberry Producers Association (APCQ).

The province produces 340 million pounds of the fruit yearly – 24 per cent of the international cranberry market, according to APCQ. “A good part of the industry in Quebec [is] family businesses,” Mr. Godin says.

But Patrick did not aspire to take over the farm until Denis announced that he might sell it. Patrick and his wife Nancy Goudreau were living in the Montreal area and working in sales – he for a seed company, she for an amusement park firm. They were in their early forties and wanted a new challenge, so they left the city and their careers to assume the business in 2005, Ms. Goudreau says.

Within three years, Patrick developed a modern packing plant and quickly pushed into Europe. But global shipping-container shortages and port delays in 2020 slowed deliveries to major international buyers.

Atocas Bédard reduced its exports and spent the next few years improving its production methods. Cranberries are finicky, requiring very acidic soil, constant moisture, precision fertilization and close monitoring with probes in the fields, Mr. Godin explains. Growers must be creative, sometimes inventing new approaches to farming altogether.

When Atocas Bédard expanded from frozen cranberries into the fresh market in 2009, for instance, it had to innovate a new harvester, modifying machinery meant to pick other crops. “We’re always trying to find new ways to get better,” says operations and fields manager Gabriel Bédard, Patrick and Ms. Goudreau’s son.

Gabriel and his brother Camil Bédard were not preordained to join the family enterprise, although their grandfather, who passed away in 2022, had his hopes: he put it in a trust for them. “It was clear the idea was I was going to get [Denis’s] share of the business for now,” Patrick says, “but it was to be transferred to both [boys] in time.”

As kids, the brothers put hours into the fields and the packing house. Each has postsecondary education that is applicable to their current role at Atocas Bédard. Camil, 29, director of finance, graduated from Bishop’s University with a degree in accounting. Gabriel, 26, studied agro-economics at Université Laval.

“When we were young, we weren’t sure if we wanted to do this,” Gabriel says. “But you see your parents and, yes, it’s a lot of hours, but you can take time off in the winter and the quality of life is nice – it doesn’t feel like working most of the time.”

Patrick and Ms. Goudreau, vice-president of human resources, plan to step aside in the next three years as their sons take over as co-presidents.

Aileen Miziolek of The Family Business Consulting Group in Toronto says firms such as Atocas Bédard aren’t just passing on a lifestyle, they’re also trying to preserve the family culture within the enterprise.

But shared values can cloud a lack of organizational structure in a farm business – governance is sometimes an afterthought, Ms. Miziolek says. “It becomes a problem in the next generation because it was typically one person, Dad, who made all the decisions, and then we have to make decisions together.”

Patrick says that while he has the final say, Atocas Bédard informally takes a family-council approach that gives both sons a voice in guiding the company. “In the field, my dad is pretty open,” Camil says.

The third generation is taking over at a pivotal time as the enterprise grows at home and abroad. Canada accounts for 60 per cent of its business, with its products sold via three major grocery chains and brokers in restaurants and other markets. But it is again increasing European exports, this time in a more measured way. “We’re going slowly – we don’t want to shift quality,” Patrick says.

In 2025, Atocas Bédard bought one of Nova Scotia’s largest cranberry producers and packers, giving it closer access to international markets through the Port of Halifax. The purchase adds a second packing house, 85 acres of cranberries and 275 acres of highbush blueberries to its portfolio outside Quebec. At peak season, Atocas Bédard employs 66 workers.

There are other challenges beyond expansion. Cranberries are sensitive to the temperature jumps of climate change, which impacts fruit quality, reduces yields and increases pests and diseases. The enterprise must also adjust to the differing climates of Nova Scotia and Quebec, Camil says.

But Ms. Goudreau is confident the business will continue to thrive under her sons: they’ve seen the world outside the farm and have chosen to return to this lifestyle. “It’s the same passion for Gabriel, Camil, Patrick and I. The focus is the success of the company.”