profile The specialist
Changes and challenges havemarked the career of the province’s point man for the berry industry.
By Judie Steeves T
here have been many changes in the industry since the provincial agriculture ministry’s berry industry specialist, Mark Sweeney, began working in that field.
Although he’s been with the ministry for 30 years, he’s only been working in the berry sector for the past decade or so.
During those years the amount of strawberries grown has declined and raspberries have remained static. The blueberry acreage and volume has more than doubled.
“There have been incredible challenges,” commented Sweeney, in an interview from his Abbotsford office. He grew up in the Fraser Valley surrounded by berry fields and began picking raspberries for the neighbours as a youngster.
“I liked it,” he says with a grin. After high school, he studied science but found he didn’t like it, so he took time off to travel. Eventually Sweeney returned and attained his degree in horticulture, but travel called again. A year later he found work in the ministry of agriculture as a summer student, and “I’ve been there ever since.”
“In those years, our focus was extending to the growers the science and art of horticulture. Hort specialists knew their stuff and farmers respected them. However, I think we are at risk of losing that connection to growers,” Thompson commented, looking back. Sweeney is now the specialist for all berries and nuts in the province, one of only four horticulture industry specialists with the ministry. He came to berries through a circuitous route, beginning as manager of the allotment gardens for the
ministry in Richmond and Burnaby in 1978.
The idea then was to work toward self-sufficiency in food, but the gardens were privatized in 1980. Ironically, interest in food self-sufficiency is back and there are allotment gardens located next door to the agriculture facility in Abbotsford where Sweeney now works.
He next became the ministry’s vegetable specialist, holding that position for 20 years before moving into berries.
Today, he admits that it’s a major challenge to keep on top of all of the many issues facing the industry from new market development to climate change to new pest and disease problems. Sweeney is the ministry
JUDIE STEEVES
Mark Sweeney, berry industry specialist with the B.C. Miistry of Agriculture and Lands.
B.C.—a record-sized crop.
representative on councils for each berry sector and works closely with their research committees to identify priorities and facilitate research projects.
B.C. is a charter member of the North American blueberry council, which was established in 1965 and represents most of the cultivated blueberry crop in North America. This continent is the leading producer of blueberries in the world, with 90 per cent of its production. The Fraser Valley is the second- largest blueberry growing area in the world.
In the past decade the blueberry industry has grown to production of 80 million to 85 million pounds in 2009 in
Increased volumes here and world- wide has led to a dramatic decline in prices which is putting pressure on growers’ bottom lines.
Volumes will increase dramatically over the next few years as new acreage comes into production. The blueberry council is working to increase consumption through domestic and export promotion and new market development.
It’s also the most valuable fruit crop grown in B.C., estimated at $64 million, while the province’s cranberry crop’s estimated value is $40 million. Value of the raspberry crop is $23 million and strawberries, with the decline of the processing industry, have dropped to an estimated value below $2 million.
Pollination Services 7,000 Colonies Available in 2010
Blueberry, Cranberry, Raspberry, Blackberry, Strawberry, Currants, Kiwi, Pumpkin, Zucchini, Squash
Contact: John Gibeau President, Honeybee Centre Cellular (604) 317-2088
Email:
Gibeau@HoneybeeCentre.com British Columbia Berry Grower • Spring 2010 13
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