KELOWNA – Fred Steele remembers the sound of peach trees cracking in the cold. “They were going off like a rifle shot,” the former BC Fruit Growers Association president recalls. “The temperature had dropped quickly in the fall of 2007 and there was still sap in the trunks that froze and the trees just spilt …
BC Tree gets credit protection
BC Tree Fruits Cooperative has sought protection from creditors under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), with a court-appointed monitor overseeing next steps for the troubled fruit marketer. The application to BC Supreme Court on August 12 came as the co-op struggles with cash flow issues and low estimates from growers of apple deliveries this …
BC Veg denies greenhouse application
Ontario-based greenhouse grower Mucci Farms has had its application to market produce in BC denied by the BC Vegetable Marketing Commission. Mucci currently supplies produce to the BC market as a wholesaler through Country Fresh Produce Inc. of Delta. Mucci’s application to be a marketer, originally submitted May 29 and subsequently amended prior to final …
Dairy quota increases
Strong demand for milk is leading to a quota increase for producers across Western Canada. Producers in BC and the other three provinces within the Western Milk Pool will receive a 2% increase to their daily quota effective September 1. “This increase in daily quota is being issued to meet the continued strong demand in …
Hothouse growers tap glass ceiling
SURREY – BC greenhouse vegetable growers have begun consultations with members on a new marketing commission for the sector. Currently regulated by the BC Vegetable Marketing Commission, the greenhouse sector has unique needs that BC Greenhouse Growers Association (BCGGA) president Armand Vander Meulen says don’t fit well with potatoes and other storage crops regulated by …
Farming Karma scales up on-farm processing
KELOWNA – The worst cherry crop in the Gill family’s 30 years of farming in the Okanagan hasn’t dampened their drive, with a new 100,000-square-foot processing facility for their Farming Karma line of fruit sodas and other drinks set to open this month. Built in their orchard in Kelowna’s Lower Mission neighbourhood, the facility will …