BC Tree Fruits Cooperative closes after 88 years

The end of a cooperative that helped farmers process, store and market their fruit will hit small farms hard, says one farmer in British Columbia’s Okanagan who was shocked by the news.

Jennifer Deol, who runs There and Back Again Farms in Kelowna, British Columbia, said the news that the BC Tree Fruits Cooperative is closing after 88 years means small farmers will no longer have access to the cold storage and distribution infrastructure they need to sell their harvests to wholesalers. This comes in the middle of what has already been a disastrous growing season for many.

“If we don’t find a way to store our table grapes, they’re going to spoil. It’s not worth picking them. We’ve always worked with BC Tree Fruits, where they store and sell the product for us, and now we’re facing a future where we have to figure it out for ourselves,” she said.

“We don’t have the infrastructure, and most growers don’t have the infrastructure, to just store their apples for the season until they can find someone who will buy them. That logistics is something that’s going to be a nightmare for a lot of growers, and it’s something we’re trying to grapple with right now.”

In a letter sent to members on Friday and obtained by The Canadian Press, the BC Tree Fruits Cooperative said “extremely low” fruit volumes and difficult market conditions mean it is no longer accepting fruit.

The letter said the cooperative, which processes, stores, packages and sells fruit for 330 affiliated farms, will go to court seeking instructions on how to wind down its operations and “maximize recovery for all stakeholders.”

It says growers should “immediately look for an alternative” to market their produce for the remainder of the season.

In a statement to The Canadian Press, the co-op asked for patience as it works through the process with its lenders and advisers.

“The BC Tree Fruits Cooperative Board of Directors has determined that due to extremely low estimated fruit volumes, weather impacts, and difficult market and financial conditions, the cooperative will not be able to effectively operate the business in the future,” the statement said.

According to Deol, farmers had known the organization had been in trouble for some time, but he found it “very shocking” that the organization had to close halfway through the season.

“People are literally picking fruit right now and it was meant to go to the co-op, but the doors are closed. And that’s a very scary situation, especially because it’s been such a terrible year,” she said,

Bad weather this past winter has resulted in the loss of nearly all peaches, apricots and nectarines in British Columbia this year, and cherry orchards have also been severely damaged.

In mid-January, several days of freezing temperatures hit the interior, killing the active buds of trees that had only just begun to recover from the heat of 2021 and had endured a harsh winter in 2022.

According to Deol, the cooperative model provided transparency into how the fruit was sold, allowing the group to negotiate better deals through a larger volume of fruit and giving growers a better idea of ​​the profits they could expect.

She said that without the cooperative, most growers would likely have to rely on private packers to process their fruit, risking getting less money for their crops, which already have a tight profit margin.

They will also try to distribute as much as possible themselves, she said.

“We just talk to everyone we know and ask, ‘What can you bring?’ Because we have hundreds of crates of apples (coming in September). We can’t possibly sell that ourselves.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 27, 2024