OCTOBER 2019 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


21 Bumper crop pushes down blueberry prices


Early rains send late varieties to processing by RONDA PAYNE LANGLEY—Blueberry


growers faced lower prices this season as close to 200 million pounds of fruit hit the market, a new record for the BC industry. While growers with good


quality and high yields will make out well, tough times lie ahead for many. Rhonda Driediger of Driediger Farms in Langley, which grows, packs and processes berries, says prices dropped within the first 10 days of harvest. “Pricing was good for the first 10 days of blueberries, then dropped significantly,” she says. “We paid $0.95 to $1.50 mid-season for hand- picked and $0.65 to $1.00 for machine-picked, depending on quality. Draper and Liberty paid higher than Duke.” Quality doesn’t seem to be as good as last year for David Mutz of Berry Haven Farms in Abbotsford, who is also seeing a reduction in pricing. He says berries were middle- of the-road in terms of quality.


Driediger is urging growers


to renovate fields to put in better varieties. “[I’m] encouraging all


growers to take out Reka, Earliblue, Hardyblue and any other crap variety and plant Calypso,” she says. “We have seven acres and are planting 28 more.” Calypso is a late- season fresh-market variety and she believes may help growers compete with early imports of berries from South America.


Spotted Wing Drosophila


hasn’t been as much of an issue as in previous years, according to Jack Bates, a Ladner grower and chair of the BC Blueberry Council. “I talked to the odd packer


and overall I think people are learning how to look after their fruit properly,” he says. “It’s just a management issue.” However, all berry growers need the cooperation of the federal government in order to ensure growers continue to have the products needed to stay on top of the pest, Bates notes. Bates saw good quality berries in the fresh market, although rain posed a challenge.


“I think the fresh market had a bit of a challenge on a few days with the rain events, but I think overall the quality was very good,” he says. He expects the final tally to


be upwards of 190 million pounds, compared to 165 million last year. This will put pressure on growers who hand-harvest late-season


fruit, given the extra expense this entails. “If you’re picking by hand


you better make sure you have a market for it, because (if) it goes in the freezer, you’re losing money,” he says. Driediger agrees, saying


good-quality machine- harvested fruit was a winner for growers this year. “Overall, if you picked by machine and had good quality and high yields, you did well,” she says. “[The pricing] opens high, then goes down mid-season.” Driediger saw reduced


quality in late-season varieties, all of which went to processing. The onset of heavy rain in the first half of September clinched the end of harvesting for berri7es that weren’t in tunnels.


Workers at Shoker Farms were harvesting a good crop of blueberries this summer. MYRNA STARK LEADER PHOTO


OBSOLETE COLLECTION CAMPAIGN OCTOBER 16–18, 2019


BC and Alberta Peace River Region: Got unwanted pesticides or livestock and equine medications?


Peace River Region: iid li


Farmers: safely dispose of unwanted or obsolete agricultural pesticides and livestock and equine medications – no charge!


October 16–18, 2019 October 16-17, 2019


BC: Dawson Creek – Tuesday, October 16 Fort St. John – Wednesday, October 17 Rycroſt – Thursday, October 18


FORT ST. JOHN October 16 Nutrien Ag Solutions 250-785-3445


DAWSON CREEK October 17 Richardson Pioneer 250-782-9264


Alberta: St. Isidore – Tuesday, October 16 Falher – Wednesday, October 17 Grand Prairie – Thursday, October 18


For collection site locations and times, go to Cleanfarms.ca – “what to recycle where.”


Cleanfarms collection events will return to Vancouver Island and Fraser Valley Region in fall 2020 and to the Okanagan, Kootenay, and Interior Regions in fall 2021.


PARTNERS


OBSOLETE COLLECTION CAMPAIGN OCTOBER 16-17, 2019


For more information: 1-877-622-4460 cleanfarms.ca


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