Interview with Vyckie Vaillancourt, owner of O’Citrus

Interview with Vyckie Vaillancourt, owner of O’Citrus, and the seventh-generation successor of the Auteuil, Laval, farm

[Vyckie Vaillancourt]: My name is Vyckie Vaillancourt and I’m the owner of O’Citrus, a company located in Laval, in Auteuil. O’Citrus is the leading producer of exotic citrus fruits in Quebec. What do I mean by “exotic”? I mean citrus fruits that aren’t normally found on the Quebec market. Most of my trees come from Asia, from Japan. And my company is the first in Quebec to sell their fruit on the Quebec market.

[V.V.]: O’Citrus is also a division of the Vaillancourt farm. It’s a project I’m really passionate about, one that I’ve really taken much further as a company.

[V.V.]: I have a graduate diploma in business start-ups, in entrepreneurship, from the HEC business school, and that’s really where the initial idea came from to start a company, because…like it or not, you can have an idea, but you have to know the basic principles, like how to develop a business plan, how to look for financing, how to participate in competitions, calls for tenders, things like that. And yes, what I studied really helped me launch the O’Citrus project, in terms of marketing, in terms of the business relations approach, business development, I really had to [um] … I really brought, I think, that special touch to the company to take it to another level, and the same thing with the farm. I really took the farm to a slightly higher [um]…technological level, with social media. I participate in a lot of events to raise the farm’s visibility with slightly younger customers, who I’m trying to attract and cultivate.

[V.V.]: I’m…I represent the seventh generation of the Vaillancourt farm, but I’m also the first woman to take up the reins [um]… as a female entrepreneur on the farm. I’m very proud to be taking up that torch, but there’s also a lot of pressure, because already in agriculture, it’s pretty hard to take over and start running things. And a woman in agriculture, [um]… it’s even…even more…I would say, seen in that way [um]… extraordinary, because…yes, I operate the equipment; yes, I work 13 to 14 hours a day.

[V.V.]: For me, being a female entrepreneur, really in business, that represents [um]… really a gem, because…it allows me to break down barriers, and to say “well, just because you’re a woman doesn’t mean that you can’t be a farmer, or…do what you want to do, whatever. I had absolutely no intention of being a farmer, but I changed…I decided that I wanted to change my life a bit, and I did it, and it’s not because you’re a woman that you absolutely have to say, to stay away from what are considered male occupations. So for me, it’s something I’m really proud of, to say to myself that…I’m a woman, I’m taking over the family farm for the first time and, on top of that, I’ve actually created a really innovative business for me [um]… I’ve accomplished something really great.