LA MALBAIE, Que. — Farms and rural businesses are a comfortable choice for Europeans looking to buy in British Columbia, said Lori Camire, manager and director of Venture Connect on Vancouver Island.
“There’s more comfort in rural areas where they can get tracts of land and where they can grow and sell things,” she said during interviews at the Community Futures Network of Canada national conference in La Malbaie, Que., last month.
In contrast, Asian buyers are more interested in retail.
Camire’s job is to prepare B.C. farms and businesses for sales, which are increasingly prevalent now as the baby boomer generation starts to retire.
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She said recent surveys have found that almost half of businesses are looking for a new owner, and 24 percent of business owners plan to exit within five years. However, only six percent had a formal exit strategy to help them do that.
Camire said Venture Connect helps business owners with marketing, planning and preparing for a sale and connecting buyers and sellers.
She said there is good interest in agriculture because of diversification opportunities, which include tapping into tourism.
“They will look at agri-businesses with good business plans and don’t care where they are,” she said.
“A local buyer looks at location first, but that’s not the case with buyers from farther away.”
She said cost is relative, noting how those from overseas weigh what they’d pay there to what they’d pay here.
“That same dollar buys different things,” she said.
Camire cited one client who sees huge potential in taking over an operation producing fruit and preserves for local markets. The goal is to enlarge it to include exporting products to a country overseas that must import both water and food.
“Otherwise that business would have closed,” she said.
Many business owners do not have family interested in succeeding them, she added.
Economics have shifted in B.C. from the old anchors of forestry and fishing, which are no longer supporting rural regions as they once did.
Camire said keeping small businesses going will help rural communities.
“If there’s not a critical mass of services, that’s when you get ghost towns,” she said.
“There’s still the potential of that if we don’t work to support critical mass in rural communities.”
Economic Gardening takes a different tack with initiatives to retain existing businesses, said Mary Ellen Heidt, general manager of Community Futures Okanagan.
“We’re helping business within the community grow rather than attracting large business,” she said, citing the business and market data collected to support those enterprises.
As a result, a wood manufacturer in Penticton found markets in Australia, while a new manufacturing plant opened in Oliver and created 30 jobs.
One company does water moisture testing with solar powered sensors.
The farmer can log on and track data in his soil, helping him know how much to water and when.
“That’s most important for agriculture because of global warming, water will be a precious resource, so you want to make sure you don’t use water when you don’t need to,” she said.
Her group also provided $800,000 in loans for a greenhouse grower’s shift into organics.
Wendy Smitka, chair of Community Futures British Columbia, praised both programs’ efforts in sustaining rural regions, saying they support those who want to stay and those who want to retire and sell.
“We’ve got both things covered,” she said.
karen.morrison@producer.com
