The BC Fruit Growers Association says the provincial government hasn’t done enough to follow through on promises to help the industry.
Growers in B.C.’s interior were devastated in January this year by a sudden deep freeze that killed fruit blossoms. That meant most trees failed to produce fruit this year, while grapes were left frozen on the vine.
The sector’s problems were magnified this summer by the sudden collapse of the BC Tree Fruits Co-operative.
“It’s been a tough few years. This year I can feel the anxiety across the Okanagan, across all (agricultural) sectors, if it’s wine grapes, if it’s tree fruits, whatever it is,” BC Fruit Growers vice-president Deep Brar told Global News.
“We are all checking the weather daily, we’re hoping that that one day doesn’t come that could basically send us back into the same turmoil we were this past year.”
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Brar said the industry remains in limbo, amid promises for government help.
Newly-appointed Agriculture Minister Lana Popham has yet to meet with the sector, he said.
“I am a little bit disappointed,” he said.
“We really thought we would have been a bit higher on the list to meet with in the early days.”
Brar said one of the things growers are waiting on is a promised one-time climate-change response fund, announced in August.
At the time, the province said the fund would be aimed at smaller, family-run farms to help them develop longevity and sustainability amid climate change.
He said it remains unclear when or how such a fund will make payments.
Speaking at an unrelated event on Thursday, Premier David Eby said supporting fruit growers remains a government priority.
He said the province had already ensured farmers would still get paid this year, despite the collapse of the BC Tree Fruit Co-operative.
“We were able to step in and provide those payments to the growers earlier and then recover that money back for the province from the court process … to the best of our knowledge, all of those growers found packers for their apples,” Eby said.
Eby said the province remains committed to supporting tree fruit growers, including the apple and grape sectors, which have suffered from wild swings in weather in recent years.
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