Okanagan apples returning to market amid adversity

A year after the BC Tree Fruit Cooperative closed down, orchardists in the Okanagan are quietly optimistic about this year’s apple harvest.

It’s been a bumper year for cherries, and peaches and apricots are back on track. And now apples across the region will start to be picked.

“The weather we’ve had this summer so far has been as close to ideal as possible,” Bella Rosa Orchards owner Sam DiMaria told iNFOnews.ca. “The quality of the fruit is fantastic… the apples are looking really good.”

After a rough few years of extreme cold and heat, DiMaria said the apple crop this year is back to normal, with some varieties a little worse than last year, and some a little better.

“But in every respect, the quality on the trees is as good as I’ve ever seen it,” he said. 

DiMaria’s comments are echoed by BC Fruit Growers’ Association executive director Adrian Arts.

“We had really good conditions at bloom this year and… we had reasonable temperatures, good pollination conditions,” Arts said. “The fruit is looking really nice. We’re seeing beautiful size on the apples.”

The Summerland orchardist said some places are still seeing damage from the cold snap two years ago, and even from the heat dome five years ago, but overall, things are back on par.

Outside of the weather, orchardists in the region have also had to pivot now that the BC Tree Fruit Cooperative has shut its doors.

“The whole thing changed overnight,” DiMaria said.

Prior to the closure of the 88-year-old cooperative packing house, the majority of the orchardists in the region would sell their fruit to the packing house. From there, it would eventually end up on grocery store shelves.

With the decline of the coop, orchardists now have to look to private packers.

“That (meant) that a change of attitude from the growers towards their packers, shippers, marketers was necessary,” DiMaria said.

While those growing fruit struggled to find storage and buyers last year, things appear to have settled down.

“The whole industry, the growers, packers, marketers, are kind of feeling their way through this new business model, finding their way through the whole economic climate,” DiMaria said.

So was the old system better?

“Yes and no,” DiMaria said. “It’s becoming evident to me that some … private packers struggled to return enough money to the growers. And a few other packers actually did better than what the co-op was doing.”

It’s early days as growers transition to a new way of doing things.

“I think everyone will find their place where they fit into this whole system, whether they fit at all or whether they bow out of the industry or whether they keep going,” DiMaria said.

(CARLI BERRY / iNFOnews.ca)

Okanagan orchardist Amarjit Lalli said one thing that was lost with the coop’s closure was the amount of controlled-atmosphere storage, which can keep apples fresh for seven to eight months.

Head to any supermarket and consumers will likely find bags of Washington State apples, not Okanagan apples.

Depending on the variety, Okanagan apples will appear in the next few weeks, while the bags of Washington apples will have been picked last season and kept in controlled-atmosphere storage.

The Washington State apple supply is also vastly bigger than that of BC.

Lalli said BC produces two million boxes and Washington state produces 170 million. One orchard in Washington State can be the size of the entire BC industry.

“We’re a drop in the bucket,” Lalli said, adding that they flood the market and push down prices.

“Canadians have to step up and say, ‘We’re only going to buy local fruit.'”

Arts said another issue facing orchardists is that Canada only has five supermarkets buying the products.

“They dictate what the price is,” Arts said.

Growers will make 50 cents a pound for apples that supermarkets sell for $2.50 to $3.50 a pound.

“And it sucks because… you see some of the large retailers saying, ‘We support local and we support Canadian,’… but you’re not compensating Canadian growers,” Arts said.

All the orchardists stress it’s important for people to buy local. You’re getting a much fresher and superior product and helping the local economy.

As orchardists deal with the weather, the new free market system of selling, a lack of controlled-atmosphere storage, a glut of apples from Washington, and Canadian supermarkets which don’t pay much, they encourage everyone to buy local.

“When you buy local, you’re doing your part in supporting the local economy… (getting) a better-tasting fruit, a flavorful fruit, grown locally,” DiMaria said.