-Visiting MP promises to pass on damage assessment to federal agriculture minister-
OSOYOOS TIMES-July 16, 2008-
By Paul EverestrnOsoyoos Times
The Parliamentary Secretary to the federal Agriculture Minister said he would let his boss know about the damage to Osoyoos's fruit crops from a powerful storm that hit the area on the evening of July 3 upon his return to Ottawa.
Guy Lauzon made the pledge while visiting Osoyoos on July 8 as part of a cross-Canada listening tour where the eastern Ontario MP is meeting with young farmers and members of the agricultural industry to see what kind of challenges they are facing.
Lauzon, who inspected hail damage to fruit with Conservative candidate Rob Zandee at an orchard in western Osoyoos during his stopover, said he was meeting with local orchardists and grape growers to learn about any losses they experienced due to the storm.
This will all be on the minister's desk by Friday (July 11) morning, he said.
Joe Sardinha, president of B.C. Fruit Growers Association, said that the storm, which walloped the area with large hail, heavy rain and wind gusts of up to 90 km/h, was definitely one of the more intense weather systems to hit the South Okanagan in some time.
He compared it to the worst kind of hurricane.
For the Okanagan, that sounds like a Category 5, he said. It definitely ranks as one of the bad ones.rnSardinha said that the storm, along with colder-than-usual temperatures this spring, will most likely mean losses for area farmers of at least $10 million and he expects the cherry industry to file roughly $5 million in crop insurance claims for hail damage.
It might even go higher than that, he said. There were quite a few pockets of hail.rnHe said many farmers in the Osoyoos area between the U.S. border and the Sun Fresh Cooperative Growers packing house on Hwy. 97 have experienced a total write-off on crops such as apples and apricots.
Ranbir Kambo, a board member with the association, told the Osoyoos Times the day after the hail storm that he anticipated $150,000 in losses to his apple, apricot and plum crops.
Manfred Freese, president of the B.C. Grape Growers Association, said the storm did not hit vineyardists as hard as orchardists, but he still expects a large financial loss.
Out best guess right now is around half-a-million, he said.
He added that those vineyard owners who hadn't thinned their grape clusters did not suffer as much damage as those who had.
Sardinha said this is the third year in a row where poor weather has damaged local crops and forced agriculturalists to make high crop insurance claims.
Last year, he added, valley agriculturalists were forced to place $10 million worth of claims for weather-related losses.
Sardinha said he's concerned that the continued high claims could force insurance premiums to increase and ultimately make local growers end their participation in the crop insurance program.
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