Funding boost given to the Okanagan wine industry

PENTICTON – Okanagan College’s Penticton campus is getting $1.75 million over five years for a “technology access centre” to help the wine industry.

It’s one of 12 such centres getting funding from the federal Ministery of Science and Sport this year and is the second in B.C. after Camosun College.

“We have developed a significant track record of training and support for the wine industry over the past quarter century and have been focused on how we could leverage college expertise and personnel to assist all these growing industries,” Okanagan College president Jim Hamilton said in a news release. “The industry support for the proposal we developed has been phenomenal and the input that organizations, businesses and individuals provided was invaluable.”

It will be called the B.C. Beverage Technology Access Centre and will get $350,000 each year to provide “analytical and sensory services, along with a full suite of business services,” the release states.

It goes on to say that, within the Okanagan College catchment area, there are 19 craft cideries, 219 wineries, 16 craft distilleries, and 24 craft breweries and “the numbers are growing weekly.”

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