Features Production Research
Aid program announced for B.C. veg growers

August
4, 2011, Surrey, BC – Federal and Provincial Agriculture Ministers Gerry Ritz
and Don McRae, recently announced a cost shared AgriRecovery program for B.C.
vegetable producers who experienced crop land damage in 2010 and crop revenue
losses throughout the 2010-2011 marketing season. The damage and losses result
from severe rain during the fall harvest season when as much as 50 per cent of
the Fraser Valley’s crop yield was unharvestable.

August
4, 2011, Surrey, BC – Federal and Provincial Agriculture Ministers Gerry Ritz
and Don McRae, recently announced a cost shared AgriRecovery program for B.C.
vegetable producers who experienced crop land damage in 2010 and crop revenue
losses throughout the 2010-2011 marketing season. The damage and losses result
from severe rain during the fall harvest season when as much as 50 per cent of
the Fraser Valley’s crop yield was unharvestable.

The
aid package is intended to help farmers bridge the financial gap caused by
having less crop volume to sell during the 2010-2011 marketing season and
farmers incurring above normal costs for getting 2011 crops planted. Included
in the extraordinary expenditures are: readying gullied and eroded land for
cropping; repairing compromised drainage systems; and undertaking additional
measures for assuring quality crops during the 2011 season.

David
Taylor, chair of the B.C. Vegetable Marketing Commission (VMC), welcomed the
announcement. “The long sought assistance will help bring affected vegetable
farm businesses to better financial footing.

“The
efforts of the federal and provincial governments over the past few years have
resulted in production and revenue risk management tools being available to
farmers. Though capable in normal years, the standard risk management tools
were overcome by the autumn 2010 circumstances. To assure viability and
sustainability for the BC vegetable sector the additional financial assistance
is badly needed.”

The VMC
gathered information about the regulated storage and processing vegetable crops
affected by last fall’s excess moisture indicates significantly fewer acres of
potatoes, beets, cabbage, carrots, rutabagas, turnips, bush beans, broccoli,
Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower were harvested in 2010. Poor field or crop
conditions resulting from unrelenting rain overwhelmed field drainage capacity
to the extent that in excess of 3,400 acres of vegetables located in the Fraser
and Pemberton valleys and parts of Vancouver Island were unharvested.

The
VMC reports that the combination of significant revenue loss resulting from a
43 per cent reduction in normal crop volumes in 2010 and increased near term
operating costs leading to heightened indebtedness levels jeopardizes
sustainability and will take as much as 3 years for some vegetable farm
businesses to return to financial equilibrium.

“The
2010 crop losses were devastating and unprecedented in living memory for the
havoc it wrought to our fourth generation vegetable farm business and those of
my colleagues,” said Peter Guichon, a Delta potato farmer and VMC vice-chair.

“Along
with our wholesale and retail partners, B.C. vegetable growers in large measure
contribute to meeting rising B.C. consumer expectation for fresh, local
produce,” he added. “With normal harvest conditions this fall, the demand for
B.C. produce throughout the 2011-2012 marketing season is expected to be met
with adequate volumes of a broad selection of BC vegetables.”