Bad news was the order of the day as orchardists gathered for the 135th annual convention of the BC Fruit Growers Association in Kelowna, February 20.
“It has been a difficult time for all tree fruit growers,” BCFGA president Peter Simonsen noted in his report.
While the 2023 apple crop rebounded from the effects of the 2021 heat dome, Simonsen says Washington growers also saw a large crop that resulted in lower prices in BC.
Cherry prices also plunged last year when weather events conspired to bring nearly all of Western North America’s cherry production online at the same time.
And there is more bad news on the horizon.
“The peach, apricot, plum, nectarine, and cherry crops will be severely impacted by the January 2024 freeze event, although the full extent is still unclear,” Simonsen says. “Our sister industry, the wine grape sector, will see no fruit this 2024 vintage and will likely suffer from vine mortalities as well.”
The millions of dollars and countless hours the provincial government and industry has devoted to the Tree Fruit Industry Stabilization Plan launched in February 2021 has yet to deliver meaningful results.
“The project has achieved some of its goals,” Simonsen says. “However, in a fall 2023 survey, growers indicated that few meaningful effects have been noticed, and overall, they feel the TFISP has not achieved the important goals set out.”
The meeting heard updates on the Snowflake apple recently launched in Ontario and the as-yet-unnamed ‘1080’ apple that is being trialed by growers in BC as well as other Canadian apple regions.
Melissa Tesche gave her last report as general manager of the Okanagan Kootenay Sterile Insect Release program before she moves over to the BCFGA as general manager.
The proposal for an apple marketing commission to help improve grower returns was also discussed.
A special panel session featured several former stalwarts of the agriculture community discussing the Agricultural Land Reserve.
Study shows BC farmers markets add value