Largest industry | About 1,400 farms on P.E.I. are facing pressure from expansion as urban residents now outnumber rural
CHARLOTTETOWN — Agriculture is a big industry on this small island.
Prince Edward Island has only 620,000 agricultural acres, compared to 60 million in Saskatchewan, but the industry is the largest contributor to the provincial economy.
“Agriculture has played a vital role in our province’s identity and it continues to be our biggest industry,” said agriculture and forestry minister George Webster.
However, it also faces the pressures of an increasingly urban population, rural dwellers with no agricultural connection and fewer farmers.
John Jamieson, executive director of the P.E.I. Federation of Agriculture, said 1,400 farms produce products as varied as potatoes, milk, beef and fruit, generating $500 million in farmgate receipts annually.
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There were about 9,500 farms in 1951.
Like most places, the urban population now far outweighs the rural. Jamieson said 60 percent of the province’s 145,000 residents live in or near Charlottetown.
As well, farms are getting larger.
The potato industry is not the largest in acreage but accounts for about half of farmgate receipts.
Jamieson said 200 farmers plant 89,000 acres to potatoes. The average potato farm is 300 acres, and it costs $2,500 to $3,000 to plant each acre.
“Anyone even growing 300 acres needs to have a million dollars in the bank just to get things going, and then you cross your fingers and hope for the best,” Jamieson said.
Farmers have had to work together to finance equipment and warehouses that cost millions of dollars. The costs have also pushed some out of the business; there used to be 1,200 potato growers.
The hog sector has also taken a big hit: the number of farms has dropped in the last 15 years from 300 to about 20, which produce 70,000 hogs.
Grain growers plant 111,000 acres and soybeans total 60,000 acres.
“Soybeans have been ramping up substantially in the last 10 or 12 years,” said Webster.
“We do ship some of the beans to Japan.”
Fourteen percent of the non-genetically modified identity preserved soybeans are processed in eastern P.E.I. for the Japanese market, Jamieson said.
A strong dairy sector of 180 herds generates $100 million in receipts annually.
Jamieson said most of the milk is used to make cheese, and producers are worried about the new Canada-Europe trade agreement and what it might mean for cheese makers.
About 40 percent of the province’s farms have beef. Its single federally inspected plant kills 500 head a week.
“Our plant will buy every Holstein bull they can get their hands on because they like the lean hamburger that comes from that,” Jamieson said.
“That’s a new opportunity just in the last year or so.”
Other growth areas include organic production, mink farms and fruit.
Fifty certified organic producers operate in the province, and Jamieson said some conventional growers are adding organic components to take advantage of premiums.
Wild, or low-bush, blueberries have seen tremendous growth in the last few years, increasing to 13,000 acres. Wild blueberries have always grown on the island, but people learned to enhance their growth by burning and mowing.
The berries are harvested every second year, and this year’s harvest was the biggest ever at more than 20 million pounds.
“Part of the reason for that is the fields are getting older and as they age they yield better,” Jamieson said.
Another reason is a rule change two years ago that allowed bee imports to assist pollination.
Wyman’s of PEI, a processor in the eastern part of the province, expanded last year and now processes 25,000 lb. of fruit an hour.
The crop was so large that Wyman’s had to place quotas on deliveries.
Jamieson said one grower told him production of 200,000 lb. on a 30 acre field two years ago was dwarfed by the 500,000 lb. he harvested this year. The average price is 70 to 75 cents per lb.
