The 2016 Fruit Leadership Race

Each year Orchard and Vine connects with B.C. fruit and berry growers and their associations to determine how the season went. It’s an important review in that it delivers information not only about seasonal activities but also struggles and triumphs.

The round-up is given a theme to make fruit performance relative and to also bring a healthy dose of humour to the topic. With the US election antics not long behind us, it seemed a good time to compare the season’s fruit performance with historical leaders. Like the challenges for our neighbours south of the border, this leadership trail was bumpy at times, although we may have put a dab or two of whitewash on some of the failings of the leaders we chose.

Cranberries

We start our seasonal recap with the latest berry harvest – cranberries. Brian Mauza, senior Agricultural Scientist of Ocean Spray of Canada notes that although the weather wasn’t quite as strong for cranberries this year as it was last year, it was still good from a growing standpoint given pollination and growing conditions.

“We’re expecting the yield to be higher than last year,” he notes. “It’s another good crop for B.C.”

Growers for Ocean Spray were encouraged to focus on fruit quality for the 2016 season and Mauza says that focus definitely paid off.

“It’s expensive, but growers worked very hard on fruit quality this year, our quality is up.” He adds that there is an incentive for that laser focus because, “The growers get paid for that.”

The cranberry girdler is the worst pest for the crop. This webworm is quite happy to munch on the roots of turf grasses, but will move to the runners of cranberry plants and kill them.

“That’s our single worst pest and when it’s hot it is very prevalent,” Mauza says of the girdler. “The only control is biological or chemical, so we use a lot of IPM (nematodes).”

Yield may be up, but it will be fairly close, with new varieties coming into full production helping the numbers slightly.

“Most growers are actively replacing some of the older, less productive beds with newer very productive varieties,” notes Mauza. “We see a number of acres replanted every year. A few beds that were planted a few years ago are coming into production now and are really, really good.”

Many of the replants are new varieties from the breeding program that are producing earlier crops. This constant replacement is, as Mauza says, the key for success by staying in tune with the greatest and best varieties available.

He adds that next year looks promising with bud set appearing quite strong already.

So, which historical leader did the cranberry season mimic? William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canadian prime minister in the 1920s, 30s and 40s because of his work towards constant improvement with labour organizations in the 40s and his ability to keep Canada together while enacting gradual change.

Strawberries

Strawberries, had perhaps the best season of all fruit. Dave Khakh, grower with KBF Farms and director with the BC Strawberry Growers Association notes that the season was good – one that he’s definitely happy with.

“They were just loaded,” Khakh says of the plants. “It was a phenomenal amount of fruit on the June bearing. We just kept picking and picking and picking.”

He adds that the fruit was very ripe, juicy and well ripened throughout the berry. The size was also a strong point with full, large berries in both the ever bearing and June bearing varieties.

With the gradual decline in acreage of strawberries over the years and the closure of local processors, growers focus primarily on fresh, farm-gate sales, according to Khakh. There were no significant changes in the amount of acreage planted.

The weather was a good participant in the outcome.

“It was pretty good,” he says. “It was early. It was pretty warm in early April and May, unseasonably warm.”

Despite the early warmth, pest issues weren’t terribly significant with some spotted wing drosophila (SWD) late in the season.

“We never used to have these diseases and pest issues,” Khakh says. “I think we could use a little colder winter. Twenty to thirty years ago there used to be this intense cold and wind, we don’t get that anymore.”

Another reflection from the past Khakh offers is that replanting wasn’t necessary for five or six years. Now two or three years is the norm for strawberry plants. Growers are replanting a few acres each year and are rotating with other crops.

With a season so good, Asoka the Great who ruled the Indian empire of Maurya from 269 BC, is the choice for the leader most like the strawberry season. While he caused wars, he is described as being kind and gentle. In fact, after the Kalinga War he was so disturbed by the suffering of people that he denounced his throne and privileged life to adopt Buddhism.

Cherries

The cherry race was a hard one to win with weather as the enemy. Like Napoleon Bonaparte in his 1812 invasion of Russia across the Niemen River, the weather out-matched the man who was otherwise a brilliant military leader. The freezing cold wiped out the majority of his troops.

President of the BC Cherry Association, Sukhpaul Bal of Kelowna’s Hillcrest Farms says it was a bait-and-switch type of season.

“Everything was looking nice,” he says. “The cherries were rising up to be some of the biggest cherries we’d ever seen. Then we got hit with lots of rain in July. I heard some stats that in July there was maybe one day in 13 that was over 30 degrees. It was something we’d never seen before. It was waves of rain, you’d get it all dried off and it would come in again in the afternoon or early evening.”

With fruit already at maximum size, splitting was the result. Few blocks of varieties made it out unscathed. Some, like Skeena, had upwards of 70 per cent damage while others were in the range of 35 to 45 per cent or 15 to 20 per cent.

“It wasn’t a devastating year by any means,” Bal notes. “But it was looking like one of our best years and you’re throwing half or more of the cherries in the garbage.”

Bal retains his perspective. He credits the advancements in technology for the

ability to easily remove damaged cherries from the line efficiently.

“If cherries were easy to grow, everybody would be growing them.” He says.

Another bright note was that SWD wasn’t as problematic as it has been in previous years although a new pest, the marmorated stink bug is a concern.

“We’re keeping an eye on it,” Bal notes. “It doesn’t sound like a very good thing.”

Overall, cherry acreage has increased, partially because of the replant program. Bal puts the current volume of trees at about 5,000 acres.

“There’s still more room for quite a bit more acreage I think,” he says. “There’s very strong demand. It’s just the challenge of can you get a quality cherry to them.”

Bal attended a trade show in Hong Kong and noted the demand for beautiful B.C. cherries is still growing. Growers will have to continue to stay on top of quality to maximize the Asian market.

Overall, the yield from the 2016 season is expected to be down from the 2015 season, but as Bal puts it, “We’re optimistic in the cherry world. We have to be.”

Raspberries

Raspberries had a more positive season than cherries, but didn’t come without battles. An annoying pest – SWD – continues to be the hardship for these growers and this continuing battle was made worse by weather challenges according to Arvin Neger of Mukhtiar Growers and chair of the board with the Raspberry Industry Development Council.

“Last year was definitely a hotter season and a drier season,” Neger says. “It put a lot of pressure on the plants and the plants couldn’t thrive as they might have. It did rain a lot this year but it didn’t affect the quality as it would have or could have.”

Neger says the season was mostly dry and when the rain did come, it was followed by wind which helped to dry the moisture and prevent the anticipated mold. While the plus side of the wind was helping to clear up the excess moisture, but the downside was that the wind would knock the fruit off the canes before it could be picked.

“It’s difficult to pick in the rain,” says Neger. “It’s not ideal. So in the breaks between the wind and the rain we had to get out and get the berries picked. We would find the berries falling down because of the wind. Then we also had to keep in mind the SWD spray cycle.”

Raspberry growers were stuck in a balancing act where the rain, the harvest and the SWD sprays all had to be orchestrated perfectly in order to get the fruit off the field. Despite this, Neger feels the season was good overall given his conversations with fellow growers.

SWD continues to be the primary pest and one that raspberry growers could use some extra help with.

“We have a good tool belt filled with products we can use to control other pests,” he notes. “The problem we’re running into with SWD is there’s only a certain number of products we can use to control it.”

Each product also has limitations for use. Rotating the sprays help to prevent SWD from becoming resistant, but Neger thinks it would be ideal to have two or three more products to add to the rotation.

“Almost every grower knows that this is a real problem and it’s not going anywhere and we need to adapt our processes to control it,” he says. “On the west coast we don’t get the extreme cold temperatures to get the larvae to die off. It’s the ideal climate for the SWD population with the moist springs and hot summers.”

The weather this year was ideal for SWD to repopulate, but growers were vigilant and managed to stay on top of the issues. Despite SWD and the rain, the berry quality was good and yield is expected to be higher than it was in 2015, though how much higher is hard to tell.

“I think growers will see a decrease in price,” Neger says. “But tonnage will be up from last year, so hopefully growers can walk away with that at least.”

Raspberries continue to be dominantly in the processed market, with five per cent or less going to the fresh market.

Neger believes overall acreage of raspberries has gone up, but much of the new planting has been offset by the fields being ripped out and replaced by blueberry plantings. There are approximately 100 levy paying growers in B.C. representing about 2,100 acres and Neger is pleased to see most of these growers investing in replanting.

“Some raspberry farmers are replanting their raspberries,” he notes. “They are trying different varieties that are available.”

Some of those different varieties include Rudi, Squamish and Wakefield (which is a private variety requiring royalties). These new varieties are, in some cases, replacing the predominant Meeker variety.

It seems that Alfred the Great, the king of Wessex (the south of Great Britain) is the best fit for the raspberry season due to his sponsorship of education (including that of women), developing the streets seen in England today, protecting his people from Vikings and being one of the few leaders to inspire the moniker of Great – all of this despite facing a constant and persistent health issue which many now believe to have been Crohn’s disease. He dealt with his issues, yet carried on bravely.

Blueberries

The blueberry season too was filled with weather challenges given the mild winter, warm spring and variable summer conditions according to BC Blueberry Council’s executive director, Debbie Etsell.

“This is difficult for growers to manage,” she says. “They need to be on top of their field practices to manage diseases and pests.”

The warm spring saw an early start to the blueberry season with good pollination and fruit ripening about four weeks ahead of normal. This caused high levels of harvesting early in the season as both early and mid-season varieties were ripe at the same time. This volume of fruit from mid-July to early August was the standard for all Pacific Northwest growers.

Unfortunately, that excitement of crops at the start of the season didn’t translate to mid-season. In terms of leadership it can be compared to the second term curse often plaguing US presidents.

While there was no disease pressure at the beginning of the season that changed as the season progressed. SWD was also ramping up in the later varieties due to the amount of fruit earlier in the season. These issues added to the

reduced volumes in the later crops and an overall decline in the yield of blueberries.

“For the first time, in a very long time, volumes are down,” Etsell notes. “We don’t know exactly how much yet, but at least 12 million pounds.”

Plantings of blueberries have slowed from the previous “blueberry rush” years.

A positive note internationally was that blueberries made their way to China for the first time ever after last year’s approval.

“B.C., for the first time, sent shipments of controlled atmosphere fresh blueberries to China,” says Etsell. “This is a great accomplishment for our industry.”

The blueberry season wrapped up similarly to Lyndon B. Johnson’s (LBJ) two terms in the White House. The first was highlighted by some wonderful positive activities while the second was mostly coloured negatively by the Vietnam War.

Tree Fruits – Apples, Pears, Peaches, Plums and Nectarines

Tree fruits fared well in 2016. Although a few orchards experienced some difficulties due to the stress of the heat last year, these were minor and isolated according to Fred Steele, president of the BC Fruit Growers Association.

“We got pretty good size, we got a pretty good crop,” Steele says of apples. “We had longer periods of cooler weather.”

Pears were also considered a good crop as were the soft tree fruits of peaches, plums, nectarines and apricots. In fact, one peach nearly set a record.

“One grower, Robert Hague at Roseridge Orchards, they had one peach that was pretty near to a Guinness record,” notes Steele. “Everybody’s yield was pretty good.”

Acreage of all fruits stayed consistent Steele notes, but he did feel that the apple yield might be up slightly for the year as well as pears. Apple prices have held solidly. Due to the soft fruits farm-gate method of sale, it’s hard to say if pricing and yield held to the same levels, but he felt that they had.

Where issues cropped up for tree fruit farmers was in pests.

“We’re taking a different approach to pests,” Steele says. “We’re actually looking at SIR [Sterile Insect Release program] and may be able to work with some projects, even at a contract basis, at this point to address some of the pests that are now invasive.”

This look to new methods of dealing with pests comes from the constant pressure of SWD and the fears of new pests. Steele notes that new pests used to come on the scene every five to ten years, but growers are now seeing them every three to five. The current challenge growers are hoping to stave off is the apple maggot as well as the marmorated stink bug cherry growers are concerned about.

“We’re keeping on the lookout and monitoring for these at all times,” Steele says. “We’re in an area in North America that doesn’t have it. Everyone else has the problem.”

Steele fears if pest pressures and SWD populations continue to rise it could impact the enviable IPM program of tree fruit growers.

Overall, Steele felt that yields of tree fruits were up, size of fruit was up and quality was good.

“Quality and taste were really good this year,” he says. “I’m really happy about it this year.”

Steele also adds that the replant program received an extra $1 million in funding to provide the program for the next few years, crop insurance will now include windstorms in the same manner as hail storms and he is working on an infrastructure program.

“This industry is changing so fast,” he says. “We have to run at top speed just to keep up with it.”

The tree fruit season could be compared to the reign of Louis the V of France who was nicknamed the Lazy King – certainly the tree harvest wasn’t lazy, but just as there was no change from the previous ruler’s (Louis’s father) tenure to Louis’s, there were few changes from the tree fruit growers’ previous season to this. What was negative for Louis, was a positive for growers.

Overall, growers around the province came out of the 2016 season positively. There were some hiccups given the ever present challenge of weather and the increasing pressure of pests, but hopefully complaints will remain down and optimism up as everyone looks back on the year. Clearly, when it comes to leadership races, fruit and berry growers are at the forefront.

Grapes

This year, grapes had perhaps one of the best seasons of recent recollection. While the unusual spring heat created anticipation for an early harvest, the mid-summer cooling off led to what may be some of the best wine grapes and a successful season for table grapes as well.

Val Tait, general manager and winemaker at Bench 1775 is also the vice president with the British Columbia Grape Growers’ Association. She notes the late cooling off in the summer is great for wine grapes.

“I’ve been involved in the industry for 27 years and every year has been completely different,” she notes. “We’ve always been able to ripen fruit. Some years we just make it, others we have room to spare. It’s very rare to get cool climate conditions, which is what this is. We’re very lucky.”

Tait notes that while late August and early September are the indicators of wine grape harvest yields, table grapes are harvested earlier.

“There has been and increased demand for local grown [table] grapes,” she says. “It’s been good for the industry.”

The majority of table grape growers also grow other types of fruit. Those who grow wine grapes do so for the obvious reason of creating wine. The harvest of wine grapes is about two weeks later than the past two years, and is perhaps closer to the overall decade norms.

“I’m seeing very beautiful aromatic profiles on the fruit and very good tannins in the red,” she notes. “It’s the potential for the best balanced chemistry we have in the fruits. I’m thinking it’s one of the best vintages.”

The lower alcohol potential and balance of acids and sugars are expected to make the flavour richer and more balanced in the wine grapes.

“Fruit like that pretty much makes [wine] itself,” Tait says. “Just get out of the way and let the fruit fully express itself.”

There were few pests of note this year, but there was one challenge, higher labour costs to train the vines and get excessive growth under control. It’s the downside of an increased yield. Tait estimates labour to have been 30 or 40 per cent higher for some vineyards.

With all that good news, one might think acreage in wine and table grapes is going up in leaps and bounds, but Tait says that trend has slowed from previous years.

So, on the theme of leadership, who did the grape season best represent? Ronald Reagan, who, in 1987 called to copmmunist leaders in a speech that concluded with “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” While Reagan was no more perfect than any of the leaders noted in this review, he did identify the right time to help make things better just like grape growers will be making amazing wine and continuing to attract buyers of local table grapes.