Fruit growers discuss challenges

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.

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4 hours ago

Forty-six regions in BC are eligible to participate in the federal livestock tax deferral program, announced yesterday, more than anywhere else in the country. The program allows producers who downsize their breeding herds by 15% to defer reporting the proceeds until the following year, when they buy replacement stock. But after multiple years of drought, the BC beef herd is cruising 25-year lows and some producers are calling for more support to maintain and rebuild their herds. For more, see: [www.countrylifeinbc.com/bc-leads-livestock-tax-deferrals/]

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4 days ago

After weeks and weeks of no moisture, there's rain in Kelowna today. While much more moisture is needed over the coming weeks and months to reduce drought conditions and the air smells of wet campfire, the slow, steady rain is very welcome for fruit grower#BCAg#BCAg ... See MoreSee Less

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The first Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust Grassland Set-aside Variety Trial Field Day was held at Delta's family-owned Tecarte Farms, August 27. Co-owner Bill Bates and DFWT executive director Christine Schmalz welcomed more than 35 people to view seven acres planted to different grassland blends specifically chosen to rejuvenate the soil and support the farm's blueberries. For the Bates family, it was time to try something different following the decline of the field's blueberry bushes over the past several years. "We tried everything, and nothing worked," says Bates. The blueberries were removed in May and the grassland crops planted about a week later.

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Bessette Creek is the latest watershed hit with a temporary fish protection order this year as the province moves to protect returning Chinook salmon. A total of 131 surface and groundwater users must cease drawing water immediately, with forage producers, greenhouses and nurseries impacted. "Declining flows in Bessette Creek reached record lows in early July 2026 and have remained below the minimum level required to support fish population survival," says the province. Bessette producers have embraced voluntary cutbacks, scheduled irrigation and other measures to reduce water use, and are also waiting on funding to boost water storage infrastructure. They're the second group of producers hit with a provincial order this year. Salmon River irrigators were told to top watering earlier this month following a reprieve to address wildfire risk. Growers in both the Salmon River and Bessette watersheds are urging the province to support new water storage infrastructure in advance of next year.

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There is a problem... having lived in the salmon river ( silver creek ) area, I remember a fish biologist telling family members that salmon only "survive" in high iron content creeks, they do not "thrive".... salmon river ( silver creek ) is a very high iron content, would stain clothes brown when i would use bleach... So don't expect high salmon numbers off of that creek , even in ideal situations...

I just wish they would take an interest in CHASE CREEK....went bone dry...100% of trout abd other species died...smell was terrible from rotting fish. Understand this has happened many times in the past. Chase Irrigation District totally responsible for this disaster. Now fishermen are complaining about major drop in water levels at Pillar Lake.

They could not mismanage things worse than they have. It's impossible for them to. The fact that farmers that we need for our animals are now suffering the consequences our governments have not protected us from, is absolutely fucking wild.

The annual potato variety trial in Delta on August 27 attracted more than 300 people from across Canada, with Bill Zylmans of the BC Potato and Vegetable Growers Association declaring it a gathering of "the extended potato family." With the expansion of BCPVGA's mandate to a host of field vegetable growers, the field day was a chance to network, learn and understand issues across the vegetable sector. BC agriculture minister Lana Popham and Delta South MLA Ian Paton were on hand for the event at Lundstrum Farms on Westham Island, with both applauding efforts to restore bridge access to the island earlier this year to ensure production was unimpeded. Results of the trials will be published in the new year once seasonal data has been collated and analyzed.

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Lana Popham is the hardest working MLA in the province, I don’t agree with the NDP policies, however I do recognize a hard working MLA…thanks for what you do