Sun-Rype moves concern growers

The planned closure of Sun-Rype Products Ltd.’s juice-packing line in Kelowna is raising concerns among fruit growers.

Lassonde Industries Inc. of Quebec announced April 16 that 80 of the plant’s 215 staff would be laid off as part of a move to consolidate juice packing at facilities in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec.

Lassonde told Country Life in BC that fruit processing will not be affected; apple purée will continue to be used for the production of fruit-based snacks in Kelowna, while apple juice pressed at the facility will be directed to Lassonde’s other facilities in Calgary, Toronto and Rougemont.

Apple processing and snack production will continue to employ 135 people in Kelowna, but the loss of juice packing raises alarm bells for the BC Fruit Growers Association.

“Process-grade fruit that would otherwise have moved through these channels now has limited alternatives,” BCFGA said in a statement April 17. “In the near term, that could mean increased volumes directed to lower-value uses – or worse, landfill.”

The plant is close to the heart of growers, who established it in 1946 as BC Fruit Processing Ltd. and see its closure as part of the broader troubles in the sector that shuttered the BC Tree Fruits Co-op packing house in 2024.

BCFGA president Deep Brar did not respond to a request for comment.

Adequate processing capacity has been a long-standing concern of BC growers across sectors, with the loss of frozen vegetable and rhubarb plants followed more recently by concerns over slaughter and cut-and-wrap capacity in the meat sector.

In 2021, the BC Dairy Association explored options to boost dairy processing amid concerns over consolidation among fluid milk processors.

“Competitive conditions that support local processing are not a luxury,” BCFGA says. “They are a prerequisite for the long-term viability of the province’s tree fruit sector.”

Concurrent with concerns over the loss of juice packing, BCFGA is supporting a letter-writing campaign spearheaded by the National Farmers Union “to restore balance and competition in Canada’s food system.”

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