A sudden cold snap decimated B.C. peach and wine grape crops, while economic factors reduced profits for apple-growers this year.
When Jennay Oliver realized her peach orchard wouldn’t produce a crop this year, she thought of her grandfather.
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After his peach trees were damaged in the winter of 1950, the Okanagan farmer bought 100 head of cattle — an insurance policy of sorts that would provide income when there was no fruit to harvest. His family continued to diversify their West Kelowna farm over the following decades, adding dozens of different ground crops and a market as the city grew around them.
This winter, when the temperature in Kelowna dropped to -28, killing the buds that would have produced the summer’s peach crop, Oliver saw a similar path forward.
The fourth-generation farmer and owner of Paynter’s Fruit Market set out to plant “every inch of fallow land” with vegetables and created a U-pick flower garden and a pumpkin patch. She began running tours and hosting birthday parties at the farm. This fall, she loaded up on B.C. apples for her market and asked customers to spread the word that it would be open until the end of November.
“The field crops didn’t really make up the lost income,” she said, “but they helped us make it to next year.”
As a succession of hard years reshapes agriculture in the Okanagan Valley, Oliver is among those choosing to diversify. A “glass half-full kind of person,” she’s taking advantage of her farm’s location and market on the edge of the city to grow a variety of different crops.
Other farmers have plans to focus on more reliable crops. Some will replant with heartier varieties or try new growing techniques. But there are also fears that some farms will fold or that there will be no one to take over when older farmers retire.
“As farmers, we understand it’s not always going to be a great year,” said Sukhdeep Brar, vice-president of the B.C. Fruit Growers Association. “What we’re seeing now is consecutive years of loss. So for three years, we’ve been dipping into savings, waiting for next year. It’s at the point where we need next year to be a good year.”
‘Hard decisions’
Jennifer Deol lost 60 per cent of her farm’s income in four frigid days in mid-January.
The “weather whiplash” that destroyed the peach, apricot, plum and nectarine crops on her Kelowna farm doesn’t feel like a one-off, but more like a trend, she said.
Since she began farming seven years ago, she’s experienced more bad years than good, with soft-fruit losses in three years out of five. Her neighbour, who has farmed for 50 years, can recall six bad years in that entire time, with half of them in the past several years.
Deol isn’t waiting to see if good years balance out the bad. Her strategy to stay viable is a combination of several options available to farmers. This spring, she planted more ground crops, like vegetables, as well as seedlings and starter plants to help make up for lost income. She plans to diversify, growing more vegetables, like tomatoes, peppers, melons and herb baskets, so her peach crop is a “bonus.”
But vegetables aren’t as profitable as peaches. Although it pains her, she’s also decided to put her 10-acre (four hectare) apple orchard up for sale to keep the rest of her farm going strong.
“We can’t justify it anymore,” she said. “It’s hard to give up on that dream, but we need to make decisions now so we aren’t erased from the farm story.”
The profit margin for apples has been poor for several years, with imports from Ontario and Washington state driving down prices. In late July, the sudden closure of B.C. Tree Fruits, a co-operative that provided packing, marketing and sales services for about 300 Okanagan fruit-growers, further destabilized the industry.
“I don’t know how growers are going to keep going,” said Peter Simonsen, president of the B.C. Fruit Growers Association. “One of our biggest challenges is how to get young people into the industry, but we’re not even talking about that.”
The number of tree fruit farms has been declining in B.C. for several decades — from 4,381 farms in 1961 to 2,091 in 2021, according to the Statistics Canada census of agriculture. Crop shifts are normal. Before the 1990s, there were few vineyards in the Okanagan; now there are more than 250. Cherry acreage has increased, while apple acreage has decreased.
But Simonsen said B.C. needs a better crop insurance program that reflects “current climate realities” if it wants small family farms to continue.
Deol said she expects a large farm or agribusiness will buy her apple orchard and convert it to grow high-value crops like cherries or wine grapes. Although a lack of diversity can make farms vulnerable to the loss of their entire crop in a bad year, large companies have a “longer runway” and may be better positioned to weather a storm.
“I’m worried because it means the erasure of small farms,” she said.
‘A few things well’
Twice a week for 15 summers, Rob Lepp has travelled from the Fraser Valley to the Okanagan, delivering strawberries and corn to markets on the way, and returning with peaches.
Shortly after opening Lepp Farm Market in Abbotsford to sell meat and vegetables from their farm, the family purchased an orchard in Osoyoos to ensure a supply of fresh peaches, nectarines, apricots and cherries. The soft-fruit crop is now a cornerstone of their farm business, attracting new and loyal customers to their market in the Fraser Valley. So when those crops were destroyed mid-January, they began to look for another source, eventually connecting with a peach grower in Georgia who would pick, load and transport the fruit to Abbotsford within 36 hours.
“The key was to be really transparent about it and make sure our guests knew these were imported peaches,” said Charlotte Lepp. “For some it was counterintuitive. They wanted to support local farmers, but this year, to do that, they had to buy imported peaches.”
Growing food on some of the most expensive farmland in Canada requires finding crops that justify the cost of the land, she said. Doing “a few things well,” like strawberries, corn and peaches is more efficient than growing dozens of different vegetables with different water, nutrient and labour requirements. Their market has grown by establishing relationships with other B.C. farmers to supply a large variety of local food.
Lepp said loyal customers who want to buy food grown in B.C. have helped his family weather crop losses. In addition to the heat dome in June 2021, a deep freeze early in winter 2022 and the sudden cold snap in January 2024, all of which damaged fruit crops, some of the farm’s vegetable fields in the Sumas Prairie were flooded during the atmospheric river in November 2021.
“As farmers, you pour your life into the land,” she said. “Year after year of losses can be very discouraging. But we’re also good at finding ways to be resilient.”
‘Evolution of the industry’
Losses sustained this winter — including between 95 and 98 per cent of the Okanagan grape crop — will reverberate through B.C.’s wine industry for several years to come.
Many wineries were able to bring in grapes or juice from Washington state, allowing them to remain open.
“Pending consumer acceptance, we should be OK,” said Paul Sawler, vice-president of sales for Dirty Laundry Vineyard in Summerland and chairman of Wine Growers B.C.
But the catastrophic crop loss could lead to permanent changes, too. The 2023 crop was also damaged by freezing weather before plants were fully dormant, leading to a 54 per cent reduction in grape and wine production that year. As climate change causes more extreme weather — like a mild winter suddenly turning frosty or a heat wave in early spring — there are questions about which types of grapes can be reliably grown in the Okanagan.
“Wine grape growers and wineries have had a relatively good run for the last few decades, but the recent past has been a bit of a reckoning,” said Ruth King, program manager with Sustainable Winegrowing B.C., an organization that provides certification to wineries working toward sustainable practices.
She expects vineyards and wineries will adjust and adapt: “Adaptation is second nature to growers of any commodity because of how many factors their healthy crop relies on and how few of those are in their direct control.”
B.C.’s wine industry is still relatively young, said Sawler. “At first, people didn’t know what would grow well, so they tried different things, and they updated as they went.”
That “evolution of the industry” will likely accelerate as some growers will have to replace dead or damaged vines. Earlier this year, the B.C. government announced a $70-million program for fruit and grape growers to replant and strengthen orchards and vineyards. In a statement, the Agriculture Ministry said it has worked with industry associations to develop planting guidelines to ensure replanted varieties will be “adaptable and perform well in the face of climate change, pests, disease and market pressures.” It doesn’t mention how they taste.
Sawler said wineries may consider hybrid varieties that can stand up to the cold, looking toward Nova Scotia, where the wine industry is based on hybrid varieties, rather than those from Europe or California, which may not be as cold-tolerant.
“It’s a two-pronged process. You have to balance what will grow with what consumers will buy, so in some ways it’s like a rock and a hard place,” he said.
Agriculture Canada research scientist Ben-Min Chang said B.C. grape growers could also draw on knowledge gained in colder climates, like Quebec and Ontario. Some growers pile up soil at the base of their vines in early winter to provide some insulation, while others use a special fabric to cover their plants.
Faith Jones, a researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences who studied the B.C. wine industry as part of her post-doctoral work, said many of the world’s wine-growing regions are facing problems due to climate change. Compared with places where extreme heat and water shortages are a problem, B.C. may have an advantage.
She said government support for trials to determine the best varieties for B.C.’s climate will be key.
Steve Venables isn’t conducting official trials, but at the Forbidden Fruit Winery in Cawston, he’s been taking cues from nature for a long time. While he lost his peach and grape crops this year, his Asian pear crop was the best in decades. He’s been busy making new apple and Asian pear products, selling organic fruit at markets and using a slower season to focus on the health of his trees. He also held back some inventory to bottle in the spring.
“Every year throws some curveball,” he said. “You need to be able to roll with it.”