While fruits were ripening on trees across the Okanagan, growers were left scrambling to find winter storage for their produce after the nearly nine-decade-old cooperative called BC Tree Fruits announced that it will no longer be in operation.
"Due to extremely low estimated fruit volumes, weather effects, and difficult market and financial conditions, the cooperative will not be able to effectively operate the business moving forward," said Laurel Van Dam, Vice President of Grower Relations and Corporate Affairs at BC Tree Fruits, in a surprising statement on July 26.
BC Tree Fruits has been a part of the farming industry since 1936, with more than 330 current members and three packing and six receiving facilities.
After the announcement, a repayment notice was issued by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce for more than $50 million in debt on Aug.6.
Court documents state that the co-op had more than $111 million in assets as of last year, including several properties, machinery and storage facilities.
In Vancouver Court, on Aug. 26, BC Tree Fruit Co-op was ordered to sell its assets in order to repay its debts to CIBC.
"We are shocked and at a loss of words for what to do mid-season," said Jennifer Deol
She said that some farmers are out in the fields in the middle of harvesting right now and were expecting to deliver their produce to BC Tree Fruit facilities today.
Deol said the closure of BC Tree Fruits will have the largest impact on small-scale farmers, who rely on the collective for not only the sale but also for the storage of their produce.
Deol explained that after harvest, farmers who were members of the cooperative would deliver their fruit to the cooperative for storage and processing. The cooperative would then negotiate the sale of the fruit with buyers around the world. Most importantly, the process was transparent as farmers were also shareholders in the organization, said Deol.
Without access to the storage facilities at BC Tree Fruits, farmers were forced to make quick deals with private buyers before their fruits degraded.
The cooperative owned the majority of a specialized type of storage facility, which controlled not only the temperature but also the concentration of gasses in the atmosphere where the fruits were kept 香蕉视频直播� significantly prolonging shelf-life.
Several former BC Tree Fruit storage facilities have since been sold and are currently in use to store fruit. Some farmers around Kelowna were unable to secure storage in time for the frost and lost significant amounts of fruit.
