OSOYOOS TIMES-May 12, 2010

By Laurena Weninger- Osoyoos Times

After the 2008 harvest, Rambir Kambo decided to pull out his 1.2 hectares of apple trees and plant cherries instead.
“I personally don’t think there’s a future in apples,” he said. “Not in the Okanagan. Not in Canada, period.”
Kambo has being an orchardist since 1998, and has previously been on the executive of the B.C. Fruit Growers’ Association.
But he’s had enough of them apples.
He said the U.S. market is pumping out an average of 100 million boxes each year and China is putting out 10 times that amount.
It adds up to too much supply in the Asian market.
And overhead costs for apple growers are adding up, as well.
“With apples at 12 cents return per pound, industry average? I just can’t grow fruit at that, there’s no way.”
To boot, in the last few years his coddling moth populations have been creeping back up, he said.
That means having to spray more throughout the summer, something Kambo just doesn’t want to deal with.
He was already growing apricots, cherries and plums on his 7.2-hectare orchard north of town and decided to put more cherry trees into the block that was formerly occupied with apple trees.
They won’t start turning a profit for a few years, Kambo said, and even then it’s unclear just how profitable the fruit will be.
“Last year was one of the worst years for cherries,” he said, adding he got 80 cents a pound for the fruit.
With overhead costs adding up to about 50 cents a pound, it’s a narrow profit margin.
“Overall, in the tree fruit industry? I’m scared. We are playing it year by year.”
Osoyoos orchardist Jim Campbell, who owns an eight-hectare orchard in Osoyoos and works for the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture as a tree fruit and grape specialist, isn’t pulling out his trees and said it is too early to tell what this year will bring for the apple industry.
“They just finished blooming,” he said. “There’s pretty good bloom, but it’s early yet.”
He said much of the success of the B.C. fruit industry is hinged on the Washington state industry.
“It’s more than 10 times our size,” he said.
Plus, the high Canadian dollar doesn’t help because apples are a commodity traded in U.S. dollars.
“It makes quite a difference for our growers,” Campbell said.
A poor economy also means shoppers aren’t prepared to pay for premium fruit, instead going for the less expensive varieties.
“If Washington state gets another large crop, it will be another tough year,” Campbell said.
Kelowna’s Sun-Rype Products Ltd., manufacturer of juice and fruit snacks, recently released their 2010 financial results for the first quarter of 2010 which closed March 27.
The company’s net income for that quarter was $34.5 million, compared to $41 million in the first quarter of 2009.
Sun-Rype’s net income for the first quarter of 2010 was $300,000 or two cents per share, compared to a net income of $2.8 million or 26 cents per share in the first quarter of 2009.
“Lower sales of both beverage and food products in the first quarter of 2010 compared to record sales in the first quarter of 2009, combined with increased investment in marketing contributed to lower earnings in 2010 compared to the same period in 2009,” said Dave McAnerney, the company’s president and chief executive officer.
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