Market Watch
Fairly stable prices, help fromprovince and shift to newer varieties should all have a positive impact.
I
t’s in years like this— with record crops of apples in the Pacific Northwest— that promotions such as the Buy Local program help B.C. growers to maintain both sales and prices in the shadow of an enormous crop from Washington State.
So, farmers were pleased to see $2 million allotted in February’s provincial budget to the program, which promotes consumption of locally-produced food. With a record-setting crop of 150 million boxes in 2014, Washington State fruit is selling about $4 a box lower than last year, making sales a challenge for the far-smaller crop of five million boxes harvested in the Okanagan-Similkameen.
However, Alan Tyabji, CEO at the B.C. Tree Fruits Co-op, said that despite the odds, growers might not even notice the difference from the previous year on their bottom line, since less fruit was sold at higher prices that year, compared to far more fruit in 2014, at somewhat lower prices.
The Canadian dollar will also help in grower returns from last year’s crop, so overall, he predicts the year won’t end as poorly as it could have, considering the size of the crop. He cautions that growers shouldn’t expect early prices to hold up as sales proceed, because there is lots of fruit in storage, both in B.C. and south of the border.
Two years ago, growers’ payments set a record, and this year it’s expected returns won’t be too far off that, he figures.
Growers who left the valley’s largest packinghouse during the past few years are returning and the BCTFC’s volume is creeping back up,
6 British Columbia FRUIT GROWER • Spring 2015
By Judie Steeves Reasons for optimism on apple front Alan Tyabji
with up to 220,000 bins last year, compared to 145,000 in 2013. Tyabji figures the normal crop the co-op handles is now about 190,000 bins, and he expects that will soon be over 200,000 as new plantings of apples come into production. The co-op is actively trying to encourage growers to move out of growing older varieties such as Reds and Goldens and into new varieties such as Ambrosia, Honeycrisp and Pink Lady, that produce far better returns. With replant, growers will double production per acre too (See replant details in this issue). Tyabji is delighted with the government’s announcement last fall of a new, long-term replant assistance program, and urges growers to take advantage of it. “Replace those old varieties with paying varieties,” he advises. He expects the new replant program will be fully subscribed.
For agriculture minister
Norm Letnick, the replant program was the culmination of a promise he made when he was minister a couple of years ago, when he spoke at the growers’ convention. This year when he addressed growers, Letnick
pointed out that it was a promise he’d made and a promise he’d kept, despite the fact there are 300 commodity groups in B.C. agriculture, and 20,000 farm families, with tree fruit growers just one drop in that bucket.
He also pointed to the 20 per cent increase in his ministry’s budget during the past couple of years, and added— to a question from the convention floor critical of the fact B.C.’s agriculture budget is the lowest in Canada— that there are a number of programs funded by other ministries that benefit the agriculture community. Included in that is the school fruit and vegetable program. There’s also a new initiative announced in the budget that would give farmers credit for philanthropic donations of fruit and other foods. At present, it’s estimated there are about 600 commercial tree fruit growers in B.C., served by six apple and pear packers, 28 cherry packers, about six commercial fruit processors and about a dozen apple cideries. Altogether, they generate some $664 million of economic activity annually, based on the $97 million in tree fruit sales and $63.5 million from packing fresh fruit sales.
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