Soft fruit growers are facing the prospect of a smaller crop this year following January’s extreme cold event and a spring frost in April. While the cherry sector will see a crop this year – unlike most other stone fruit growers, including peach and apricot producers – yields will be down significantly. “We are expecting …
CROPS
Celebrated leader a force in BC wine sector
OLIVER – Since 2013, the Wine Growers BC Leadership Excellence Award has recognized those whose work in the fields of media, research, policy, regulation, education or advocacy have advanced the sector. This year, as the BC wine industry faces an existential threat from successive years of weather disasters, Severine Pinte, winemaker, viticulturist and managing partner …
BC Veg expansion on hold
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 …
Eastern Filbert Blight threatens to resurface
A new strain of Eastern Filbert Blight, responsible for the near-complete destruction of BC’s hazelnut industry following its introduction to the province in 2005, has reared its head in Oregon. “We have collected spores from this [first diagnosed] orchard and are inoculating trees,” says by Nik Wiman, associate professor with Oregon State University (OSU), at …
Wine sector celebrates award winners
PENTICTON – The Wyse family of Oliver’s Burrowing Owl Estate Winery took home the Canadian Wine Industry Award of Distinction during the 2024 Wine Industry Awards ceremony on March 12 in Penticton. A long-term commitment to producing high-quality wine while honouring and protecting the local environment have been defining practices at Burrowing Owl, founded in …
Peace producers break ground
The soil is dry, but Peace producers are optimistic about the season ahead. “We’ve had a very mild winter up here. We hardly had any snow and typically, when we’re this far north, we’ll have a foot and a half of snow in the field at some point and this year we had two to …