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JUNE 2023
Vol. 109 Issue 6

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1 month ago

It’s been four years since the last tulip festival was held in Abbotsford, but this year’s event promises to be an even bigger spectacle than ever. Spanning 27 acres along Marion Road, Lakeland Flowers will display more than 70 varieties of the spring blossom, including fringe tulips and double tulips, the first of six months of flower festivals hosted by the farm. Writer Sandra Tretick spoke with Lakeland Flowers owner Nick Warmerdam this spring to find out how the floods on Sumas Prairie in 2021 have had an impact on his business plan as he transitions from wholesale cut flower grower to agri-tourism. We've posted the story to our website this month. It's a good read.

#CLBC #countrylifeinbc #tulipfestival
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Tulip grower makes the shift to agritourism

www.countrylifeinbc.com

ABBOTSFORD – On a bright sunny day in early April, Nick Warmerdam points out his office window at No. 4 and Marion roads to a spot about half a kilometre away across the Trans-Canada Highway.
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Omg 🥹 Jared Huston let’s go pls

1 month ago

Farming, like any other job.. only you punch in at age 5 and never punch out 🚜 ... See MoreSee Less

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Easton Roseboom Levi Roseboom🚜

1 month ago

The province is allocating $15 million to be administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. for a perennial crop replant program benefitting tree fruit, hazelnut, berry and grape growers. The program aims to cover 100% of plant removal costs and 75% of replanting costs. Funds are also available for sector development. The new program replaces a suite of sector-specific replant programs and recognizes the importance of sector adaptation in the face of market, disease and weather challenges. ... See MoreSee Less

The province is allocating $15 million to be administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. for a perennial crop replant program benefitting tree fruit, hazelnut, berry and grape growers. The program aims to cover 100% of plant removal costs and 75% of replanting costs. Funds are also available for sector development. The new program replaces a suite of sector-specific replant programs and recognizes the importance of sector adaptation in the face of market, disease and weather challenges.
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1 month ago

Just a week after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials revoked the last primary control zones established in the Fraser Valley to control last fall’s outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, a new detection on April 29 at a commercial premises in Chilliwack underscored the risk of a spring wave. This is the first new detection since January 22, also in Chilliwack, and brings to 104 the number of premises affected since the current outbreak began April 13, 2022. The disease has impacted 3.7 million birds in BC over the past year. ... See MoreSee Less

Just a week after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials revoked the last primary control zones established in the Fraser Valley to control last fall’s outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, a new detection on April 29 at a commercial premises in Chilliwack underscored the risk of a spring wave. This is the first new detection since January 22, also in Chilliwack, and brings to 104 the number of premises affected since the current outbreak began April 13, 2022. The disease has impacted 3.7 million birds in BC over the past year.
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Any other details for FVN and chillTV please? radiodon11@gmail.com

1 month ago

The province is contributing $3.2 million for upgrades to the Barrowtown pump station in Abbotsford that was overwhelmed during the November 2021 flooding on Sumas Prairie, part of a collaborative approach to flood mitigation in the region. During a press conference at the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food offices in Abbotsford today, the province said a collaborative approach that includes First Nations is needed as Abbotsford pursues a comprehensive flood mitigation strategy due to the potential impacts on Indigenous lands. Agriculture's interests will be represented by technical teams within the agriculture ministry. ... See MoreSee Less

The province is contributing $3.2 million for upgrades to the Barrowtown pump station in Abbotsford that was overwhelmed during the November 2021 flooding on Sumas Prairie, part of a collaborative approach to flood mitigation in the region. During a press conference at the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food offices in Abbotsford today, the province said a collaborative approach that includes First Nations is needed as Abbotsford pursues a comprehensive flood mitigation strategy due to the potential impacts on Indigenous lands. Agricultures interests will be represented by technical teams within the agriculture ministry.
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I sure hope part of that money is to educate the people in charge of the pumps and drainage system! They just relayed on computers and weren’t even physically monitoring the water levels. I’ve lived in the Fraser Valley my whole life and the old guys managing that system know how to do it. The new generation just sit behind computer screens and don’t physically watch the water levels. That system works very well when you do it right. The Fraser river levels are very important. The system is designed to drain the Sumas Canal (the part that runs thru the valley) into the Fraser. When they let it get backed up it put pressure on the dyke and the weak part burst. Simple science. And yes, the dykes need to be worked on too. Abbotsford has not been maintaining properly for years.

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BC Tree Fruits prepares to sell assets, apples

Trimming costs, boosting returns key as harvest begins

October 1, 2020 byTom Walker

KELOWNA – As the apples turn red across the Okanagan, Similkameen and Creston valleys and trucks start to move them to packinghouses, BC apple growers face their busiest time of year.

But the management team at BC Tree Fruits Cooperative, which sells more than $100 million worth of apples annually, is also busy. This year has seen CEO Warren Sarafinchan and board chair Steve Brown working to revitalize the financially challenged co-op and ensure its members receive higher returns.

“We are making progress on a number of key initiatives for the business,” says Sarafinchan. “We are monitoring the changes closely to make sure we are getting the expected results.”

A governance report released this past February called for a number of major changes to the structure and operating of the co-op’s board of directors and urged a focus on delivering high-quality fruit. Yet while members discuss and reflect on the report, with the aim of voting on its recommendations at an upcoming meeting, the management team continues to make changes to improve the financial situation of the business.

Corporate offices closed

The top priority is selling non-performing assets. BCTF shut its corporate offices in downtown Kelowna at the end of September and will sell the premises. Also on the block is the Osoyoos packing facility, which closed in fall 2017. The Keremeos and Summerland packing houses will continue to receive fruit, but storage is being consolidated at other facilities.

Packing lines at the Oliver and Winfield plants have been studied and investments have been made to reduce costs, a major marketing expense.

“Since shutdown in late spring we have studied our line technologies, processes and training protocols and made capital upgrades to facilities to not only lower the cost of packing, but to reduce the amount of fruit lost on the pack line,” says Sarafinchan.

While the BC Tree leaf brand is well known in Western Canada, Sarafinchan says diversification into other markets is important to deliver higher returns for growers. He points to connections he made on a trip to Asia in February as “helpful in the execution of our business plan.”

This year, BC Tree Fruits offered growers an incentive to encourage them to deliver top-quality fruit. The governance report identified the co-op’s former practice of accepting poor quality fruit and disposing of it as a loss for all members.

The co-op has developed an Apple Quality Assurance Program that sets out minimum pricing for growers who produce apples whose size, colour and ripeness command a premium.

“The objective is to encourage growers to manage their orchards as best they can through the summer, in anticipation that there will be a certain return in the fall,” explains Sarafinchan.

He believes that the program is having a positive effect.

“I am hearing examples from growers where the program has given them the confidence to make the investments to manage their orchards to produce high quality fruit to qualify for the pricing,” he says.

The governance report noted a lack of cooperation as a major impediment to the co-op’s progress.

“The board and membership is factionalized, often driven by personal agendas rather than business decisions,” the report stated.

Sarafinchan believes there is an opportunity for better working relationships among all stakeholders.

“There has got to be collaboration between those who represent the members [the board], the CEO, and the members, to be committed to working through the issues and getting to a place where the business is delivering the results for the members that it needs to,” he says.

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