The BC Potato and Vegetable Growers Association is getting a funding boost this year with official approval of a new levy by the BC Vegetable Marketing Commission (BC Veg).
The levy, proposed last year, figured into the annual budget presented to association members at their annual meeting in Tsawwassen on February 25.
“We’re trying to incorporate all the regulated commodities at $1 a ton. Everyone sees value in this organization,” BCPVGA chair Bill Zylmans told members. “It will increase the profile of the industry moving forward.”
The single development levy is for storage crops regulated by BC Veg.
Potato producers already pay a development levy of $1 per ton that funds industry research and development, as well as a $0.11 per ton levy to support the BC Agriculture Council, but this year will see the levy paid on beets, cabbage, carrots, parsnips, rutabagas, white turnips and yellow onions. Those crops currently pay just the BCAC levy.
The new levy would also replace a $0.50-per-ton charge on brassicas.
The levy passed unanimously at the BC Veg board meeting on May 8. It will add approximately $20,000 to BCPVGA revenues to fund crop-specific projects related to research and industry development.
These include projects such as the annual potato variety field trials, a long-running event that brigs producers together each summer to review the results, socialize and discuss issues of current concern.
This year’s field day is set for August 27, with the location to be announced closer to the date.
With files from Ronda Payne
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“Organic” definition sought