EDITOR鈥橲 NOTE: This is the third of five stories counting down the five biggest local stories of 2024.
Like noxious weeds that defy eradication attempts, signs of trouble in Okanagan agriculture have become persistent features of the landscape.
Chronically low prices for apples. Steadily declining membership in farm organizations. A brutal cold snap that decimated crops. Vast swaths of land left fallow rather than used productively.
But the news this summer that sa国际传媒 Tree Fruits, a nearly century-old grower-owned co-op, had filed for bankruptcy produced a shock like no other in and around the Valleysa国际传媒 beleaguered farming community.
At a stroke, 300 growers were left with no immediate way to sell and market their fruit. Hundreds of jobs were going down at packinghouses as the economic ripple effects stretched into the tens of millions of dollars, and politicians traded accusations as to who was responsible for the parlous state of Okanagan agriculture.
But the culprit was, perhaps, not so much a 鈥榳ho鈥, as a 鈥榳hat鈥.
The co-op had its roots in the 1930s, a thoroughly different era where farming was the predominant economic activity in the Valley. By banding together to ship and sell their fruit collectively, and in fact making it impractical and difficult to do otherwise, growers had a collective power over the market they would never have had on their own.
But in recent years, the rise of privately-owned packinghouses greatly diminished the reach and clout of the co-op. The co-op was becoming land rich and cash poor, and sought to address the imbalance by selling off lucrative assets such as unneeded packinghouses and other properties like its downtown sa国际传媒 headquarters.
The ineffectiveness of that strategy was made plain in late July with a terse announcement from the BCTF that it was seeking court direction to liquidate all its remaining assets. It cited 鈥渆xtremely low estimated fruit volumes, weather effects, and difficult market and financial conditions鈥 for its financial troubles.
In the middle of summer, growers were left scrambling to ensure they had a way to sell their ripening fruit.
鈥淲e鈥檙e just talking to everybody we know, to be like, 鈥榃hat can you take?鈥 Because we鈥檝e got hundreds of bins of apples coming in September. Theresa国际传媒 no way we can sell that ourselves,鈥 said Jennifer Diol, operator of There and Back Again Farms in sa国际传媒.
Meanwhile, there was a lot of finger-pointing as to how the BCTFsa国际传媒 financial situation had gotten so bad, apparently so fast, that it had more than $58 million in liabilities when it filed for creditor protection. Some growers disputed the BCTF boardsa国际传媒 contention that largely external factors, like a bitter January cold snap that decimated tree fruits, were to blame.
Amarjit Lalli, an apple grower, said some orchardists felt 鈥渢he company was being mismanaged鈥 with high overhead costs at storage facilities and packinghouses. Thatsa国际传媒 why growers were switching to private packinghouses, said Lalli, a former member of the BCTF board.
Lalli also said there had been an ongoing power struggle for control of the co-op, which limited its effectiveness and ability to deal with the ongoing financial challenges.
With the BCTFsa国际传媒 sudden closure, there were predictions from some that a 鈥渃arpet鈥 of rotting apples would litter Okanagan orchards with farmers having no viable means to sell their fruit. However, the government claimed in late summer that it had been largely successful in helping match farmers with private packers able and willing to take the fruit.
Meanwhile, the court-directed liquidation of BCTFsa国际传媒 assets is continuing at yearsa国际传媒 end, with the process at times resembling a fire sale.
Just a few weeks ago, the town of Lake Country announced that it had bought a former BCTF property in Winfield, assessed at $9.7 million for $9.1 million, though municipal officials didn鈥檛 know exactly what they were going to do with the 8.4 acre site on Bottom Wood Lake Road that has two buildings totalling about 80,000 sq.-ft.
鈥淭he right time, location, and price don鈥檛 often align, so we made sure we did our due diligence in quick order so we could direct staff to make a fair bid in the interest of the community,鈥 Lake Country Mayor Blair Ireland said of the purchase.
The land might be used for recreation, or as a new RCMP site, or as an addition to a nearby arena, town officials said.
What it will never again be, of course, is a packinghouse.
