The BC Tree Fruits cooperative has announced that it would be ceasing operations after nearly 90 years in business. The board of directors decided that due to "extremely low estimated fruit volumes and difficult marketing conditions," it was simply no longer possible to operate in a way that provided stakeholders with adequate returns.The news came as a shock not just to growers, but consumers as well, many of whom have for decades looked for the iconic green leaf logo in the fruit section at the grocery store. Leaders of the Conservative Party of BC, BC United/Liberals, and BC Green Party have called on Premier David Eby and the NDP to take action."The closure of the BC Tree Fruits Coop is a direct result of the NDP's continued neglect and mismanagement of our agricultural sector," Conservative leader John Rustad said. "This cooperative has been a cornerstone for growers in British Columbia, providing essential support and resources. The NDP and David Eby have allowed this vital institution to collapse, leaving our hardworking farmers without the support they desperately need."Rustad went on to vow that, if elected, his government would double agricultural production in BC via "a combination of modernizing agricultural practices, increasing investment in agricultural technology, and providing support to our farmers." He also expressed a desire to open access to new global markets for BC fruit, which is already renowned across North America.BC United/Liberals leader Kevin Falcon echoed his Conservative counterpart's sentiments, and called on Eby to take action by freezing the cooperative's liquidation of assets, providing funds to allow growers to store and process the current harvest, and ensure controlled atmosphere storage is made operational as quickly as possible to prevent stock from going bad. Falcon questioned why the government failed to intervene despite the fact that two provincial staff members sat on the board and helped make the "devastating decision," and demanded a full independent audit of the cooperative to reveal the "financial challenges" that caused it to shut down. In a series of posts on X, Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau directed the blame at NDP agricultural minister Pam Alexis.."During the dual crises of climate change and affordability, the province should be laser focused on food security," she wrote. "The Min. of Agriculture has engaged with the challenges at the BC Tree Fruits Cooperative as they’ve developed, and the result of their work is its total collapse. At the moment British Columbians needed their government to ensure greater food security, they failed us."BC Tree Fruits was, until recently, the largest tree fruit cooperative in Canada, picking, packaging, and distributing apples, pears, cherries, peaches, nectarines, prune plums, apricots, blueberries, and table grapes grown in the Okanagan. In a statement, Alexis claimed that despite its previous success, the closure was "not totally unexpected." She explained that the government had already given nearly $200 million to the tree fruit sector, and "will continue to work on solutions to support this iconic industry going forward."
