Bill Atwood
Times-Chronicle
When the early cold weather hit in October, it was another setback in a year marred with labour shortages and uncertain prices for fruit growers. However, two fruit packing cooperatives in the South Okanagan indicated that things could have been a lot worse for their apple growers.
“We were quite pleasantly surprised to see that ultimately almost 90 per cent of the fruit that had gone through the freeze was okay,” said Sera Lean with Consolidated Fruit Packers.
“We had a plan for it. And really, I think it was a feel good story. We came out of this quite good,” said Lean.
Laurel Van Dam, director of sales for BC Tree Fruits Cooperative, agreed.
“I know someone that’s been in the industry for a very long time. And he was saying that his science brain was saying that there’s no way under the sun that this fruit should still be pickable and packable,” she said.
“But when the horticulturists actually went out there and looked at the fruit they were surprised at how well it actually fared.”
According to Lean, while most of the fruit grown this year was already harvested before the cold snap, the varieties of apples that were still on the trees normally stand up better to cold weather.
“The Fuji and the Pink Lady, they’re pretty hardy, they’re pretty freeze tolerant, and Ambrosia is slightly freeze tolerant,” said Lean.
Van Dam said that while their growers were also not severely impacted by the weather, there was still some loss.
“For me to say that absolutely no fruit was affected would be untrue, because there was definitely fruit that’s been affected, but miraculously, not nearly as much as people would have thought.”
While there were some reports that the cold snap could potentially impact next year’s harvest, according to Van Dam it is too early to tell.
“Our horticulturists didn’t feel that the fall freeze and snow would have affected the trees too much for next season.”
“It depends more on the winter months. And then of course what happens in the spring in terms of what the crops are going to look like,” she said.
Van Dam said that the labour shortage that happened earlier this year is more likely to be a factor on next year’s harvest.
“The farmers didn’t harvest as much, so there were a lot of apples left on the trees. So that might make next year be a little bit lighter crop. But in terms of the actual temperatures it seems that in general, people aren’t that worried about it.”
While the weather didn’t have a huge impact, the labour shortage did, especially with trying to get the fruit off at the right time, Lean explained.
“When the freeze came, we needed all hands on deck to get this fruit off before and after the freeze. It was really challenging for the growers to assemble the troops and get out there and get this fruit off,” she said.
As this year has been challenging Van Dam expressed her concern for the growers.
“These poor growers need a break between what Mother Nature has thrown them over the last couple of years plus the pandemic and the labor issues that it caused. It’s definitely thrown its challenges.”
