JUNE 2012
CELEBRATING 132 YEARS AS CANADA’S PREMIER HORTICULTURAL PUBLICATION
VOLUME 62 NUMBER 06
Extreme frosts rob 80 per cent of Ontario’s apple crop Insurance assessment still underway for apples and tender fruits KAREN DAVIDSON CLARKSBURG, ON -- What used to be apple blossoms are crumbling in Brad Oakley’s hands like toast crumbs. Open up the bloom and the ovaries are brown. There are no working parts. The seed is dead. “There has absolutely never been anything remotely similar,” says the grower who’s been farming in the Beaver Valley since 1984. Oakley estimates much of his 200 acres won’t produce this year due to devastating frosts the last weekend of April. What’s unusual is that he’s not alone. Sustained low temperatures frosted every key growing region in the province, spanning 16,000 acres close to Lakes Huron, Erie, Ontario and Georgian Bay. “It will be June before the true extent of damage is known,” says Brian Gilroy, chair Ontario Apple Growers. Elsewhere in Canada, apple blossom season has proceeded normally in British Columbia, although it’s been one of the earliest on record on the east coast. It’s so early that no blossoms are expected for the 80th Annapolis Valley Apple Blossom Festival, May 25 to June 3, according to Dela Erith, executive director, Nova Scotia Fruit Growers’ Association. Quebec seems to have fared much better. Nearby states of Michigan and New York have also been
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Several members of Ontario's apple value chain contemplate the severe frosts that wiped out a huge chunk of the crop at the end of April -- a province-wide event never experienced in generations of apple farming. While it's too early to predict total losses, the industry anticipates 20 per cent of a normal crop might make it into the bin. The implications will affect (L-R), on-farm retailers such as Dave Lambe, packers such as Jim Dolmer, Bay Growers Inc., migrant workers such as Phillip Lawrence, and growers such as Brad Oakley, all in the Georgian Bay area. Photos by Glenn Lowson. hard hit, amplifying the apple shortage for the entire Great Lakes basin. Tender fruit growers are nursing their own pain with significant damage to Ontario’s early plums, sweet and sour cherry and nectarine crops. Growers are still hopeful that peaches and pears will fare better with predictions of a 60 to 70 per cent normal crop says Sarah Marshall, general manager, Ontario Tender Fruit Producers. It’s too early to tell. Due to the frost timing, apples bore the brunt, with extensive implications for the value chain. Ontario, which produces 40 per cent of Canada’s apples, has a farmgate value of $65 million. When ancillary industries of packing, trucking, cartons and crates, juice operations and pie processing are included, the number balloons to $260 million. That figure is based on multiplying the farmgate value by four. Most immediately, the effects are playing out for off-shore
workers, some of whom will be sent home to the Caribbean for lack of work or transferred to other vegetable operations. That could be devastating news for 450 to 500 workers. Experienced help such as Phillip Lawrence will stay on to prune and to provide ongoing care for orchards. That’s the double whammy facing growers. While a huge slice of annual income is gone, most of the usual costs remain. Spraying fungicides remains key to protect trees from apple scab, powdery mildew and other diseases. To that point, OMAFRA’s apple team has communicated a minimum ‘care list’ to get orchardists through a stressful year. Some concern remains as to the overall health of the trees and how they’ll fare in 2013. At Bay Growers Inc. in the Georgian Bay area, the packing line is still running with Empires, Spartans, Red Delicious and Ida Reds – just as crisp as they were last fall. The challenge is to
communicate accurately with Ontario’s major grocers who are asking about the impact to consumers for the coming fall. “We’ll have some local apples,” says Jim Dolmer, general manager, Bay Growers’ Inc. “And they will be more expensive. What we can say is that we’ll be out of apples as early as next January. We won’t be storing and packaging apples until next June like we usually do.” If big packers don’t have product, the problem will be as acute for local on-farm retailers. Take Dave Lambe for example, whose family grows and buys local apples for Grandma Lambe’s bakery and store near Meaford. He is already phoning Nova Scotia looking to source apples and cherries for pies, worried that customers will wander to other outlets. “Money can get you out of awkward positions, but can you justify passing the extra costs on to consumers,” questions Lambe.
“We’re already pulling out Grandma Lambe’s recipe books and researching other pie recipes. Maybe we’ll sell pear pie as a novelty.” For Golden Town Apple Products, a local company that makes juices for Lassonde, it’s just too early to make any predictions says Jay Johnson, director of business relations and global apple procurement. For consumers, there’s a glimmer of good news in that Washington State is predicting a bumper crop, up five per cent from average. However, the Bay Growers’ Dolmer points out that other global events are in play. Poland has been frozen out, a country that usually supplies apples to Russia. Where will the country turn? China may have enough apples to fill the vacuum. Overall, apple supplies will be tight until the southern hemisphere starts shipping next winter. CONTINUED ON PAGE 3