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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • AUGUST 2018


Cash crunch threatens BC


berry growers Crop is good but prices are running below cost of production


by DAVID SCHMIDT ABBOTSFORD – Cash is


Raspberry Industry Development Council manager Lisa Craig is about to sample some berries being developed by the BC berry breeding program during a field day in Clearbrook in July. DAVID SCHMIDT PHOTO


tight for the BC berry industry this year. Growers are watching the price of both raspberries and blueberries tumble to unsustainable levels while breeders and researchers are still waiting for renewed funding for the breeding program. Growers are reporting


returns of just 70 cents a pound for raspberries and as little as $1.05 a pound for blueberries, not only well below last year’s prices but in many cases below their cost of production. Meanwhile, the BC berry


breeding program is still waiting to receive funding for its program. Previously funded through Growing Forward 2, the money ended with the program on March 31. An industry application for renewed funding under the new Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP) that began April 1 has yet to be approved. “We are in a transition year,”


researcher Eric Gerbrandt said at the annual BC berry breeding program field day at the Agassiz Research and Development Centre’s Clearbrook substation in mid- July.


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He believes getting the funding is only a matter of time, telling growers, “We should hear about it within the next month.” In the meantime, the


program has continued, with breeder Michael Dossett saying, “We have some nice selections coming down the pike for taste, size and firmness.”


He has sent two experimental raspberry selections – 10-84-9 and 10- 71-27 – to tissue culture, the first step in making them available for grower trials next year. He also has high hopes for 10-79-33. He notes it was the top yielding new raspberry last year and he plans to send it to tissue


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culture if it repeats those yields this year. Despite that, he offers a word of caution, saying it may only be suitable for juices and purees, which are not viable markets for growers. He is also


championing 10-84-9, which has “very large, firm fruit with good colour and good flavour.”


Although focused on


breeding, Dossett is also learning about new approaches to growing berries which growers might find useful. Last year, he planted berries as dormant plugs in black plastic mulch with extremely encouraging results. “This has given us great


growth,” he said. Dossett’s breeding


program looks for raspberries with improved machine harvestability, yield and tolerance to root rot. Littau has donated a machine harvester which not only speeds up the harvesting process but allows Dossett to instantly see how a selection responds to machine harvesting.


When it comes to root rot, Dossett is getting some welcome assistance from plant pathologist Rishi Burlakoti. A newcomer to Agassiz, he is working with Dossett to measure disease resistance in new selections. Burlakoti is also looking for other products to manage root rot and working on a long-term trial to determine the best time to apply fungicides.


And he doesn’t want to


restrict his research to his own lab.


“If you have root rot issues,


let me know,” Burlakoti told growers. “I will come and sample your fields.” While Dossett is also


looking for machine harvestability, yield and taste in his blueberry breeding program, he is focusing on mid and mid-late season berries. As the field day was still early in the blueberry season, he was not able to give growers any definitive information. However, the selections on display all showed good size and colour. Many had excellent flavour, this reporter being particularly impressed with the taste of 17-13-2 .


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