Growers desperate for solutions

Ross Freake 2010-02-21 Kelowna Daily Courier"
Angry Okanagan orchardists have given the B.C. Fruit Growers‘ Association executive its marching orders: Get help, and quickly. About 200 growers attended two emergency meetings last week to discuss options on how to pull the battered industry out of its downward spiral. The meetings, one in Oliver and one in Kelowna, were closed, but the emotions were wide open. They‘re tired of investing thousands and working hard to get less than the cost of production and want supply management, just like other commodity groups, such as dairy and egg producers have, to ensure they can pay the bills and have a few bucks left over. “We want to get our profits out of the market,” said BCFGA president Joe Sardinha. “We don‘t want to be farming government programs that appear to be ineffectual and we don‘t want to be knocking on the door of government for special payment.” Growers have had back-to-back bad years – slammed with a high dollar, low prices, small fruit and a killer frost – and the money they received from their first payment on their 2009 crop was lower than their low expectations. “The estimated value of the crop is much less than what I had anticipated,” said Kelowna orchardist Sam DiMaria. “Quite frankly, I‘m really cheesed off at how low they are. “I fear many of our bigger growers will be exhausting their credit limits soon unless we‘re successful in obtaining financial help.” Like DiMaria, Sardinha was disappointed and frustrated with his payment. “I‘m 30-40 per cent below where I should be and some growers are 50 per cent below what they need to recoup their cost of production. We have to pay ourselves something, but these returns don‘t even pay the bills.”

The BCFGA asked the Canadian Federation of Agriculture to lobby the federal government on their behalf, and they‘re seeking a meeting with provincial Agriculture Minister Steve Thomson to see if the Liberals will help. “Those are the two main items in short term – help from the AgriRecovery program (for last fall‘s frost kill) and special payment from both the provincial and federal governments,” Sardinha said. “Long term, it‘s searching for a better solution. I hate to admit it, but if the governments don‘t step in, we may see another erosion of acreage.” B.C. is an undersized apple in the giant global industry; in the last 10 years, apple acreage has shrunk by 5,000 acres to under 9,000, which jeopardizes the Okanagan‘s bite-sized presence. “If we had a supply management in place, I doubt that we would need AgriStability or AgriInvest. The egg and dairy sectors don‘t require those programs. They know their costs of production and they receive that from the market and they receive a comfortable profit margin as well.” Sardinha said orchardists aren‘t concerned the World Trade Organization might cry foul if a supply-management scheme were set up here because the European Union, United States and other world producers have not reduced their domestic support. “We shouldn‘t be worried about creating more schemes because 50 per cent of the apples consumed in Canada are imports. It wouldn‘t reset the volume of imports, it would reset the price at which they could come into the country. Right now, imports are setting the market and forcing us to be price takers.”

Supply marketing wouldn‘t drive prices up, he argued, but would allow growers to capture more than 10 per cent of what the consumer pays at the grocery store. Gala, one of the more popular apples, often costs $1.50 or more a pound at the grocery store, but only 15 cents ends up at the farm house. “I honestly don‘t think consumers would pay more for apples,” Sardinha said. “The producers would get more of the retailers‘ price.”