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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • OCTOBER 2018 Berry growers report decent growing season


Weather was cooperative and pest pressure was minimal


by RONDA PAYNE ABBOTSFORD – Blueberry,


raspberry and strawberry growers all struggled with pricing challenges again this year. What set this year apart was that the spotted wing drosophila (SWD) pressure wasn’t nearly the issue it has been previously, and that has resulted in high-quality fruit. Yields are up, too. “[Blueberry yields are] going to be higher than last year for sure,” says BC Blueberry Council chair Jack Bates. “The final number we don’t know yet, but we’re thinking at least 155 million pounds.” Last year, blueberry


growers harvested about 135 million pounds. This year’s glut drove down the price of fresh berries but Bates hopes prices for processed fruit will match last year.


While SWD was less


prevalent this season, sun and high temperatures in August


caused some plant damage. “[SWD] numbers in the


fields really spiked in the second week of August,” notes Bates, “but I think if people were doing their due diligence and spraying every seven to 10 days … it was looked after. He called this year’s crop “exceptional.”


Average year for raspberries Raspberry growers also had


a relatively positive year with yields on track to match last year’s harvest of 14.5 million pounds, according to Raspberry Industry Development Council (RIDC) chair James Bergen. “It was an average year,” he


says. “Certain varieties obviously did better than other varieties, which is always the case.” As with blueberries, SWD


wasn’t a high-pressure issue, but a new concern came up. “It almost looked like a dead cell [drupelet] in some of the raspberries. It affected


RONDA PAYNE FILE PHOTO


some fields more than others,” says Bergen. “It’s the first year it was really noticeable. It only affected appearance.” Growers aren’t sure what’s causing the deformity, but researchers with RIDC are looking into it. Bergen expects lower prices compared to 2017. “We had some rain


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pressure, but during raspberry harvest it was warm and dry,” he says. “I would think the early rain helped size the raspberries up. We had decent picks and quality after the rain.” Growers of everbearing


strawberries faced more issues than other berry growers, primarily due to powdery mildew. “For us, it was a really bad powdery mildew season


considering how hot and dry it was,” says David Mutz of Berry Haven Farms in Abbotsford. “It was almost extreme in some fields. We were really fighting it when it should have been an easier year.”


The heat didn’t help


production either with berries not flowering as intensely as they would at lower temperatures. Bergen says high heat in April and again in August stressed plants and caused a decline in yields. While Mutz feels that June- bearing varieties did well this season, it’s a moot point given that the majority of growers have been removing June- bearing plants in favour of everbearing varieties. According to the BC Strawberry Growers’


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Association, there were 125 acres in everbearing berries this year and 221 acres of June bearing. According to Statistics Canada, however, those numbers indicate the lowest acreage planted to strawberries in the past decade. Farms are more productive, though. The total value of the crop in 2017 topped $6.3 million, the most since 2011. Sales in 2018 aren’t likely to match last year, however, as growers were caught off-guard when the berries came on early. “The peak [for everbearing] was a lot shorter than other years,” Mutz explains. “Normally, we see a two to three-week peak. This year, it caught us off guard about three to four days earlier than we expected. The peak came on in late July and it didn’t last as long as other years.” As a result, growers hadn’t established marketing and trucking early enough, which meant the berries had no buyers. Then, the later wave of fruit was lower than usual. “In the glut, I always have to send some for processing and this time, I only sent about half [the usual],” Mutz says. Prices were good and


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could have been even higher, but as Mutz explains, prices were already committed to when fruit ran short. Missing out on any


increase in pricing makes it harder on growers when competition is fierce, according to Bergen. “We’re always competing


with California’s fruit market. What was our peak was also the time of California’s peak,” says Bergen. “But for the remainder of the season the price has been consistently [higher than 2017] due to lower yields.”


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