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In an Jim Elliot


interview prior to the meeting, Elliot admitted it has been a bigger job than anyone had anticipated, getting the new amalgamated co-operative up and running during its first three years and it has been complicated by global economic conditions and slumping apple markets.


While the goal was to increase efficiency and reduce costs by unifying the four


Malcolm Mitchell


packinghouse co-operatives in the valley,


closure of some operations to achieve those efficiencies has not resulted in sale of the properties because of


plummeting real estate prices. Staff


Kirpal Boparai


reductions have been made at the unified co- operative but


severance packages have meant that few actual cost savings have been felt yet.


Food safety issues were ramped up and expanded requirements have put more pressure on growers and added more costs to producing fruit. Currency changes during the past few years have meant Canadian exports have not enjoyed the same advantages they did previously. Then, to add to all the other frustrations, growers wanting to make a transition out of the industry have found property prices and a shortage of buyers make the cost of leaving prohibitive.


“Only three orchards have sold in the Okanagan in the past


British Columbia FRUIT GROWER • Winter 2011-12 13


year,” Elliot notes.


The new co-op has also found federal Agriflex funding may be available, but it’s not easy to get. Several proposals by the packinghouse have not received approval from the bureaucrats, who find something to object to in every one, says Elliot.


And finally, with the high cost of union employees increasing the costs of packing, a number of independent, non-union packinghouses have begun to spring up around the valley, further fracturing the industry and


providing competition for the co-op—sometimes within its own membership, he says.


Although some growers have decided that amalgamation was perhaps not the best decision, Elliot says it would have been even costlier for the industry if it hadn’t unified when it did.


“Some growers’ expectations are very high.”


Elliot advised growers this is a time to circle the wagons and turn the guns around, not point them at each other.


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