Publicity to warmth places stress on BC Fruit Growers – Kelowna Information

Scorched fruit tree fruits

Rob Gibson – August 19, 2021 / 7:00 p.m. | History: 343363

Photo: Contributed

The BC Fruit Growers’ Association says tree fruit growers in Thompson-Okanagan have suffered this summer.

“It started with the heat wave in late June and we’ve had two since then,” said Glen Lucas, general manager of BCFGA.

Lucas says the latest projections point to a 15 percent decline in this year’s apple harvest and the cherry projections for the early season of 50-70 percent losses.

Tree fruit growers are increasingly desperate for funding from the British Columbia government, he added.

The BCFGA is pushing to join a joint federal-provincial AgriRecovery program to provide government support for heat-stressed raw materials. The program has already been launched in Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan and they have committed to taking their respective stake in the federal provincial program.

“Growing tree fruits has been a major challenge in recent years. Our growers support food security and agricultural land reserves, and we would like the BC government to do the same, of course, ”said Pinder Dhaliwal, president of the BC Fruit Growers’ Association.

Lucas says funding for AgriRecovery could help in the short term with numerous initiatives to reduce financial risk and support recovery in the apple and cherry sector, from disease control, to increasing storage and delivery capacity, to testing and rerouting from damaged products to juice.

Lucas says if the extreme weather we’ve seen this year continues, there could also be a lack of water, as is the case in the United States.

Lucas says more may need to be done to catch the melting snowpack as it falls into our reservoirs.

BC’s domestic fruit industry represents 800 fruit growers who generate $ 118 million in wholesale revenues and contribute $ 776 million to economic activity.