Close X
Thursday, November 28, 2024
ADVT 
National

B.C. tree fruit grower co-operative shuts down after 88 years, citing low volume

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 29 Jul, 2024 10:15 AM
  • B.C. tree fruit grower co-operative shuts down after 88 years, citing low volume

The end of a co-operative that helped farmers process, store and get their fruit to market will be hard on small operations, says one of the farmers in British Columbia’s Okanagan that have been left reeling from the news.

Jennifer Deol, who runs There and Back Again Farms in Kelowna, B.C., said news that the BC Tree Fruits Cooperative is ceasing operations after 88 years means small farmers are losing access to cold storage and distribution infrastructure needed to sell their crops to wholesalers, in the middle of what has already been a catastrophic growing season for many.

"With our table grapes, if we don't find an avenue to store them, they're going to spoil. It's not worth it for us to pick it. We've always worked with B.C. Tree Fruits where they store the product for us, and they sell it for us, and now we're facing a future where we have to figure that out ourselves," she said.

"We do not have the infrastructure, and nor does most growers, to just store their apples for the season until they can find someone to buy it. That logistic is something that's going to be a nightmare for a lot of growers, and it's something we're trying to grapple with right now." 

In a letter sent to members Friday and obtained by The Canadian Press, the BC Tree Fruits Cooperative says "extremely low" volumes of fruit and difficult market conditions mean it will no longer be accepting fruit.

The letter says the co-operative, which processes, stores, packages and sells fruit for 330 member farms, will be going to court for direction on how to wind down and "maximize recovery for all stakeholders."

It says growers should "immediately search for another alternative" to get their products to market for the rest of the season.

In a statement sent to The Canadian Press, the co-operative asks for patience as it navigates the process with its lenders and advisers.

"The board of directors of BC Tree Fruits Cooperative determined that due to extremely low estimated fruit volumes, weather effects, and difficult market and financial conditions, the co-operative will not be able to effectively operate the business moving forward," the statement says.

Deol said farmers knew that the organization had been struggling for some time but that it is "very shocking" to see it close midseason.

"People are literally picking fruit right now and it was meant to go to the co-op and the doors are closed. And that is a really scary situation especially because it's already such an abysmal year," she said,

Weather this winter wiped out almost all of B.C.'s peaches, apricots and nectarines for the year and severely damaged cherry orchards. 

In mid-January, the Interior saw several days of frigid temperatures that killed off active buds in trees that had only just begun to recover from the 2021 heat dome and had gone through a harsh winter in 2022.

Deol said the co-op's model provided transparency on how fruit was being sold, allowed the group to negotiate better deals thanks to having a higher volume of fruit, and gave growers a better sense of how much profit they could expect.

She said without the co-op most growers will likely have to turn to private packers to handle their fruit, and risk getting less money for their crops which already have tight profit margins.

They'll also be working to distribute as much as they can on their own, she said.

"We're just talking to everybody that we know, to be like, 'what can you take?' Because we've got hundreds of bins of apples (coming in September). There's no way we can sell that ourselves." 

MORE National ARTICLES

B.C.'s first health centre catering to francophone community to open in the fall

B.C.'s first health centre catering to francophone community to open in the fall
A new health centre dedicated to serving British Columbia's French-language speakers will open its doors this fall in Vancouver.  A statement from B.C.’s Ministry of Health says the current Vancouver Urban Health Centre cannot accommodate the needs of the Lower Mainland’s growing French-speaking community even though it offers primary care in both French and English. 

B.C.'s first health centre catering to francophone community to open in the fall

Calgary mayor: no more breaks found in remaining 300 metres of failed water main

Calgary mayor: no more breaks found in remaining 300 metres of failed water main
Five additional areas requiring further repair along the feeder main were detected late last week, but Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek told an update Sunday that a robotic inspection of 300 metres more of the pipe found no further breaches.

Calgary mayor: no more breaks found in remaining 300 metres of failed water main

Alleged robbery involving 8 masked men

Alleged robbery involving 8 masked men
Mounties in Richmond are looking for witnesses to an alleged robbery in which the victim reported being attacked and robbed by as many as eight masked people. Police say the man was leaving a plaza in the area of Number 3 Road and Williams Road, where he says he was hit in the head with a weapon and his backpack was stolen.

Alleged robbery involving 8 masked men

B.C. establishes largest provincial park in a decade to protect threatened caribou

B.C. establishes largest provincial park in a decade to protect threatened caribou
A major provincial park expansion will create a protection zone of almost 2,000 square kilometres for caribou and other species in northeastern British Columbia. The Ministry of Environment says in a statement that the addition to the Klinse-za Park will make it the largest provincial park established in the province in a decade.

B.C. establishes largest provincial park in a decade to protect threatened caribou

Dangerous driver arrested in Coquitlam

Dangerous driver arrested in Coquitlam
RCMP are crediting their Air Services team with helping in the arrest of a dangerous driver in Coquitlam. The Mounties say a motorcyclist was seen speeding and weaving in and out of traffic along Coast Meridian Road near David Avenue on May 31st.

Dangerous driver arrested in Coquitlam

3 arrested in drug seizure

3 arrested in drug seizure
Mounties in Prince George say they arrested three people after executing a search warrant at a home in the city. They say officers found about 50 grams of suspected methamphetamine, 60 grams of suspected fentanyl, four replica firearms, ammunition, two-thousand dollars in cash and other drug trafficking paraphernalia at the home on Nicholson Street.

3 arrested in drug seizure