JUNE 2017 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


Vegetable commission prioritizes trust, integrity Acreage up across many crops last season


by DAVID SCHMIDT DELTA – Although potato


prices remained fairly similar to 2015, improved yields and increased acreage put more money into growers’ pockets in 2016. Total acreage was only up


3% over 2015 but increased yields meant volumes were between three and 43% higher than the three-year average, BC Vegetable Marketing Commission general manager André Solymosi reported at the BCVMC annual meeting in late March. “Market demand for local potatoes remains strong,” he told growers, noting most of the growth is in yellow and food service potatoes. Together, they now represent almost half of BC’s total potato production.


Solymosi said the value of the potato crop increased 21% last year and he expects it to increase another $5 million this year. Root vegetable acreage


increased 12% last year, led by a 90% increase in parsnips and a 22% increase in carrots. However, percentages can be misleading as the total root vegetable acreage is only a third of BC’s potato acreage. Even though parsnip acreage nearly doubled, it still totals just 78 acres, which pales in comparison to carrots (551 acres) and potatoes (4,351 acres).


Status quo for greenhouses There was little change in


BC’s greenhouse production in 2016, with an increase of only 46 acres of tomatoes and peppers. Tomato growers clearly struggled last year, with beefsteak tomato prices dropping back to 2014 levels after experiencing a five-year


high in 2015. Specialty tomatoes on the vine did even worse, dropping to their lowest price in a decade. In contrast, peppers and long English cucumbers were able to maintain their 2015 prices in 2016, meaning overall 2016 returns for greenhouse vegetable growers were almost identical to 2015.


Supervisory review Solymosi also reported on


the results of the Vancouver Island supervisory review, which took all of 2016 to complete. As a result of the review,


the BCVMC granted agency status to both the Island Vegetable Co-operative Association (IVCA) and Vancouver Island Farm Products (VIFP) for 2017. Although it cancelled the agency designation for Vancouver Island Produce (VIP) at the end of the 2016 licence period, it did not put VIP out of business. Instead the commission used “exceptional circumstances” to give VIP a storage crop producer-shipper licence for 2017. That licence is subject to review at the end of this year.


Restoring trust and


integrity in the orderly marketing system was the BCVMC’s key objective last year and will continue to be its key objective in 2017, Solymosi said. To that end,


BCVMC hired a full-time compliance officer last year and has partnered with a province-wide investigative services provider to hire a team of inspectors. Solymosi told growers an


effective enforcement and monitoring program remains one of the commission’s action items in 2017. BCVMC also announced


Mike Reed defeated Armand Vander Meulen for the greenhouse vegetable director position vacated by Vijay Randhawa.


Fairs reach out-of-court settlement Dispute over use of Provincial Winter Fair name


by CAM FORTEMS KAMLOOPS – A Barriere


agricultural fair that agreed to drop its historical name as part of a legal settlement has rebranded itself as the BC Agricultural Exposition. The expo will be held at the same weekend, September 22-25, as the Provincial Winter Fair in Kamloops. The Kamloops- based Kamloops Exhibition Association (KXA) negotiated the exclusive right to continue the Provincial Winter Fair name following a lawsuit filed in BC Supreme Court. The two sides agreed to a settlement outside court.


"Our fair is still for the kids


and promoting agricultural and 4-H programs," said Expo society president Evelyn Pilatzke. The KXA filed the lawsuit against the Provincial Winter Fair Society and seven people in 2016. That Barriere-based society has now rebranded itself as BC Agricultural Exposition Society. The Provincial Winter Fair


was started in 1939 and operated in Kamloops until 2010, when the KXA lost its lease with the Tk’emlups Indian Band. Organizers then moved it to Barriere's North Thompson fairgrounds with a long-term


goal of eventually bringing it back to Kamloops. After a split, however, the


Barriere-based group organized the event independent of the KXA. The 79th-annual KXA-led


event will remain the Provincial Winter Fair, held at Circle Creek Ranch in Kamloops. Last year, both competing


events called themselves Provincial Winter Fair after a judge ruled in a hearing for an injunction that a trial was needed to sort out claims. “No one here is in it for the


money,” Justice Peter Rogers mused in last year’s judgement.


9


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