KELOWNA, B.C. – Adrian Abbott has won the Stanley Cup of the Canadian produce industry.The director of marketing for the British Columbia Tree Fruit Association was chosen as the Canadian Produce Marketing Association person of the year.“It’s the most prestigious award the industry can bestow,” said Abbott. He was recruited by the BCTF, the sales […] Read more
Stories by Ross Freake
B.C. gov’t rejects aid request from apple producers
An appeal by Okanagan apple growers for government help has fallen on stony ground. In March, apple growers, reeling from two disastrous years when they received about half the cost of production, applied for $10 million in direct cash from the provincial government. They learned the bad news in April when agriculture minister Steve Thomson, […] Read more
B.C. fruit growers seek help
KELOWNA, B.C. – Okanagan fruit growers have planted a big crop of patience this spring. They hope to harvest $10 million. They’re waiting to find out if their industry, which contributes $130 million and thousands of jobs to the Okanagan economy, has a future after two disastrous years where they didn’t harvest the cost of […] Read more
Wine industry whets appetite
KELOWNA, B.C. – Orchardist Keith Holman hadn’t planned on becoming a winery owner when he bought a fruit stand in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley. The third-generation farmer also hadn’t planned on being an orchardist, even though he ended up as one of the biggest in the Okanagan. He studied marine biology at the University of […] Read more
Hard times return to B.C. orchards
KELOWNA, B.C. – A bad year just got worse for Okanagan fruit growers. The problems plaguing the Okanagan fruit industry are Job-like. And farmers have come to appreciate the biblical patriarch’s lament when he said that which he feared had come upon him. After an awful 2005, consolidation of packing houses, and a new strategy, […] Read more
Ritz announces money for fruit development
KELOWNA, B.C. – Federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz has promised beleaguered Okanagan fruit farmers he will “tweak and twist” government support programs to find more support for them. He made the pledge during the recent British Columbia Fruit Growers Association annual meeting in Kelowna, where association members told him how badly they need help after […] Read more
