Premier David Eby is announcing support for fruit growers following BC Tree Fruits' sudden shutdown. 

Just hours before the Penticton press conference on Aug. 13, the co-operative officially filed for bankruptcy and creditor protection. 

Eby announced several supports for farmers, including increasing the compensation from the province's AgriStability program to compensate for up to 90 per cent of losses with doubled the cap for farmers across B.C., and a more proactive program to provide funding specifically for tree-fruit farmers to build resiliency against future extreme weather. 

Those programs, and the press conference itself, have been in cooperation with representatives from various associations such as the BC Fruit Growers Association and the BC Cherry Growers Association as part of the emergency task force the government set up to deal with BC Tree Fruits' closure. 

Following the press conference, dozens of the farmers that attended gathered around Eby as they called for representation as apple growers.

"BC Tree Fruits' buildings are owned by all of these people, the bins are owned by all of these people, because BC Tree Fruits' leveraged their fruit to get loans to pay them," Okanagan farmer Sara Harker told Eby. "We need bins, we need storage and we need food safety, those are the three things we need this week."

The premier agreed to meet with representatives from the apple growers to have further conversations about their needs. 

The Ministry of Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation has offered community transition team supports to the Town of Oliver to assist adversely affected workers in the tree-fruit sector.

Eby said that the government will be watching the bankruptcy proceedings for BC Tree Fruits and that it has not ruled out purchasing the co-op's assets to preserve them for farmers. 

"Our goal is to identify any opportunity where we may be able to preserve key services that were provided," said Eby.  "So we're going to monitor it very closely for any opportunities like that and we'll do so in partnership with the farmers associations."

Eby also called for support from the federal government by matching the announced provincial funding and dealing with subsidized and tariff-free Washington apples

"Well, it's not a level playing field and that's why one of the specific calls we have is for the federal government to look at what's happening in the United States, how growers are being subsidized to undercut BC growers in our own grocery stores. 

Asked about whether there would be any policy from the government on how farmers are paid for their products, Eby called on grocers to be part of the solution with regard to profiteering and markups. 

"I think it would be shocking for a lot of British Columbians to know what farmers are paid for an apple versus what they pay at the grocery store. It is a massive and yawning gap between what farmers can get paid for their apples and, and what the produce price is at the checkout," said Eby. "I call on the grocery store operators and owners to make sure that they're part of the solution here as well. We know that they have a lot of programs to promote BC produce and we're glad for that, but making sure that farmers are properly paid for the work that they do is a key part of that as well."

The provincial government is also easing Agricultural Land Reserve regulations around processing requirements for 2024, which normally require half of all products processed on ALR land to come from the property where the processing site is located.