Tree fruits mark a new path
Photo: Wayne Moore
BC Tree Fruits sold its downtown Kelowna office building as part of its overhaul.
Warren Sarafinchan has been busy changing the culture at BC Tree Fruits for the past year and a half and now the Okanagan Institution is ready to continue on its new path of getting more money back to its growers.
“Ultimately, as an industry, we have to improve the profitability of producers,” said the CEO in a press release. “If we don’t do that, there will simply be no more local fruit to buy in the future.”
Sarafinchan said a new level of trust needs to be created between growers, the board of directors and management, as well as a more modern way of doing business. BC Tree Fruits has enlisted the help of the BC Department of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries to help improve its governance protocols.
BC Tree Fruits was founded in the Okanagan Valley since 1936 and represents 350 growers and 600 regular and seasonal employees. It is Western Canada’s largest tree fruit pack house.
“We have accelerated the process of properly sizing the cooperative’s assets by selling underutilized properties, investing capital in equipment to improve efficiency, and working tirelessly to reduce costs,” said Sarafinchan, adding improved communications and more transparency among all parties involved was another of his goals since his takeover.
Part of the Tree Fruits overhaul included the sale of its downtown office for $ 7.5 million. The employees in this building moved to the company’s Winfield packing house or to another office in one of its warehouses.
Sarafinchan believes that Tree Fruits has already shown that it is on the right track to improve growers’ profitability.
“We believe we delivered very competitive prices to fruit growers in the summer for the 2020 harvest and that our first installment of apple payments to growers has increased significantly from last year,” he said.
“Nonetheless, the cooperative must continue to work with growers and industry stakeholders to increase returns over production costs and ensure that our growers continue to do sustainable business in the future.”
