Provincial efforts to stabilize the tree fruit sector have been up-ended by BC Tree Fruits Co-operative’s decision to wind up operations.
The co-op announced the decision “with profound sadness” on July 26, a day after a board meeting that identified low crop volumes and challenging market conditions as insurmountable challenges. It ceased accepting fruit immediately.
“We recommend that you immediately search for another alternative to market your fruit for the balance of the 2024 season,” read a letter to growers, signed by co-op chair Rob Stewart and interim CEO and chief financial officer Doug Pankiw.
BC Tree Fruits is the largest of approximately 40 packing houses in the province, receiving, packing and marketing apples, stone fruit and table grapes from 330 member growers.
“This comes as a complete shock to everybody just two weeks before growers in the south should be starting to harvest apples,” says Asif Mohammad, a co-op member in Coldstream. “I have no peaches, or apricots, my cherry crop is way down, but I was hoping to make some money on my apples. Then this news came.”
The co-op packed 70 million pounds of apples last year, and its closure means growers will not only have to find a home for their fruit but bins to collect and transport it.
“I am hopeful that I can find a place for the million pounds of apples that I expect to harvest this fall. If I do, that packer would supply me their bins,” says Mohammad, who says he’s in discussions with “a couple” of packers right now.
However, up to 30 million pounds of apples risk not finding a home this year as BC Tree Fruits liquidates assets through a process overseen by the courts. This includes the newly expanded facility in Oliver, where the co-op consolidated packing operations after deciding against a new state-of-the-art plant in Kelowna.
The path forward for BC Tree Fruits, which claimed it was turning over a new leaf in 2021 following the recommendations of a provincially funded governance study, is unclear.
The doors remain open at Growers Supply, a chain of five farm supply stores the co-op operates, but sales are cash-only. This could leave many growers without access to inputs, as many bought supplies with the amounts charged against returns from fruit sales.
This could reduce fruit quality for some growers, and the value of that fruit to the independent packers, who have traditionally maintained a higher bar on fruit quality than the co-op.
Both industry and BC United leader Kevin Falcon have called on the province to step up and support the industry.
“We sent a letter on Monday requesting an emergency meeting with the premier, but by late Tuesday we had not received confirmation,” says Melissa Tesche, general manager of the BC Fruit Growers Association, which shares 94% of its members with the co-op according to a 2021 report.
During a townhall meeting with growers in Lake Country on July 30, BC United called on the province to halt liquidation of the co-op’s assets; provide immediate emergency funding to allow growers to store and pack the season’s harvest; and ensuring controlled atmosphere storage is available to growers.
“We are urging the NDP government to step up and provide the necessary resources to support this vital industry,” Falcon says.
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