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BC Veg expansion on hold

BC growers are expected to plant just under 5,800 acres of potatoes this spring. File photo

Concerns among northern BC growers over the BC Vegetable Marketing Commission’s expanded mandate has put the brakes on the expansion.

BC Veg’s mandate changed January 1 to cover the entire province, not just the area below the 53rd parallel.

BC Veg regulates the production, sale and distribution of 20 storage, greenhouse and processing crops. These include all varieties of potatoes; yellow onions; tops-off beets and carrots; and greenhouse tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers as well as selected lettuces.

Producers growing less than a tonne of regulated product are exempt from licensing, as are commercial producers selling less than $5,000 of regulated product.

Northern BC is home to fewer than 23% of the 15,841 BC farms enumerated in the 2021 Census of Agriculture. These include 15 potato growers, or about 18% of the provincial total, with other vegetable growers accounting for less than 5% of the province’s growers.

BC Veg said it was not aware of any commercial producers of regulated crops in northern BC, and framed the move as a natural extension of its role in anticipation of future production.

“There’s no reason not to,” BC Veg general manager Andre Solymosi told Country Life in BC earlier this year. “With climate change and the technologies in enclosed structures that can be applied now, we’re thinking you could see more farming happen up there.”

However, many northern growers professed ignorance of BC Veg and its role in ensuring orderly marketing, prompting the decision to defer expansion until January 1, 2026.

“Numerous persons and organizations have since sought clarification with respect to the expanded geographical scope of regulated vegetables,” a May 13 notice declared. “The Commission will pass an Amending Order that effectively defers the implementation of this expanded geographical scope until January 1, 2026.”

A consultation is planned that will help BC Veg understand “the nature and extent of vegetable production” in northern BC and which crops and farm operations will be subject to regulation.