Workers at the Consolidated Food Packers plant near Osoyoos are shown cleaning plums at the company’s new packinghouse facility that opened this past spring, (Keith Lacey photo)
A company that has been shipping food to feed people across Canada – and around the world – has opened a fruit-packing warehouse in Osoyoos and helped create dozens of jobs in the process.
Consolidated Fruit Packers (CFP) purchased the former Jind Fruit Packing company on Hwy. 97 just north of Osoyoos and has been packing and shipping fruit across the province, across Canada and around the world ever since.
“CFP has been involved in the so many parts of the food industry for many years … and it just made a lot of sense to open our own packinghouse,” said Geoff Brown, packing house manager for CFP operations in Osoyoos. “When we were looking for the best location, we couldn’t think of a better place to be than right in the heart of Canada’s best fruit producing region here in the South Okanagan.’
CFP has its national head sales office in Kelowna and operates huge food distribution warehouses in Calgary, Saskatoon and Winnipeg.
David Karwacki, the recently retired chief executive officer of the Star Group, which also owns Star Produce, Nova Produce, BC Hot House Foods and Sliced FC Ltd., founded the company, said Brown.
The goal of CFP’s new packinghouse in Osoyoos is plain and simple, said Brown.
“We want local growers to come to our facility and be ensured we will get them the best market price possible for their fruit,” he said. “We also follow all of the highest provincial and federal standards and procedures when it comes to safety and ensuring food quality.”
Provincial inspectors paid their first visit to the CFP plant in Osoyoos last week “and we passed everything with flying colours,” said Brown. “We will be undergoing a Canada Food Inspection Agency audit the first week in September and we have no doubt we’ll be passing that audit without any problems whatsoever.”
During peak season in July, there were more than 50 people on the payroll, said Brown.
That number has been reduced to between 25 and 30, he said.
“Almost all of our temporary staff have left to return to Quebec or our younger staff are leaving to get ready to go back to school,” he said. “Our remaining staff are almost all local and this is the crew we will carry on with as the harvest with so many varieties of fruit now underway and continuing through the fall.”
CFP packs and distributes every single variety of fruit grown in the South Okanagan, including apples, peaches, pears, prunes, apricots and cherries, said Brown.
The company also distributes Canadian blueberries, which it markets, along with many other varieties of imported berries.
“We have more than 22 years of experience with the B.C. blueberry industry,” he said.
CFP helps distribute fruit to literally hundreds of thousands of Canadians every single week, said Brown.
“We have major contracts with large wholesalers like Costco, Loblaws and Sobey’s grocery store chains,” he said. “As I mentioned, it only made sense to have our own packinghouse considering our long history in the Canadian food industry.
Cherries grown and packed at the Osoyoos facility are also being shipped to customers in Texas, Taiwan, Vietnam, Mexico, Central America and Asia, said Brown.
The company also has sales offices in Arizona, Washington State and Florida.
Employees at the Osoyoos warehouse are blessed to be able to work in a “state of the art facility” that can handle packing and distributing thousands of pounds of fruit every single working day, said Brown.
“We have some of the best equipment in the industry,” he said. “We’re not the biggest packinghouse in the region, but we certainly want to be recognized as the best.”
Being able to provide quality, permanent jobs for many people is something CFP is proud of, said Brown, who moves from Saskatchewan to accept this position.
“We value our employees and try and go out of our way to make sure we have a special relationship with them,” he said. “It really is the people who make any successful business and we’re glad to have been able to provide stable and sustainable jobs in this area.”
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
