Matthew Claxton, Langley Advance
Published: Friday, August 14, 2009
Blueberry farmers are facing a tough year as prices have hit bottom in a market
flooded with berries.
For blueberry growers in Langley, the crop is good but the numbers are bad.
Avtar Gill has been working in the industry for 15 years. Five years ago he
founded his own farm, with acreage in Langley and Surrey. The berries on his
Langley farm are almost as large as grapes, sweet and perfectly formed.
Unfortunately, Gill said that after a full year of work, it's barely worth it
to bring the berries to market.
Farmer Avtar Gill has a good crop of blueberries, but the prices have sunk
because of a glut on the market.
Gill expects to get about 70 cents a pound for his berries, but it will cost
between 40 and 50 cents per pound to have them picked.
Add in the costs of land, fertilizer, irrigation and labour over the past year,
and profits are unlikely.
Low prices are hitting blueberry farmers hard, especially those like Gill who
grow nothing else.
Blueberries hit a new level of popularity as a health food several years ago.
Studies suggested they had anti-oxidant properties and could help reduce the
risk of cancer. Prices rose rapidly, hitting $1.60 per pound in 2006.
That prompted a flurry of new plantings around the world. Langley was not
immune to the trend.
"There has been quite an increase in Langley, new plantings going in," said
Will Van Baalen, executive director of the Abbotsford-based B.C. Blueberry
Council.
Most of the new plantings have been in what Van Baalen called the 232nd Street
to 240th Street corridor. Once known primarily for strawberries, the region is
now awash in blueberries.
There are 1,368 acres of land in Langley under blueberry cultivation that the
blueberry council is aware of, Van Baalen said.
That doesn't include land that has just been planted, as most farmers don't
register with the council until they are ready to start shipping.
One of the reasons for the glut is the long lead time from first planting to
harvesting.
Blueberry bushes are usually planted outdoors when they are about two years
old. After that, it takes until they are four to five years old for a
substantial harvest, and 10 years until they hit their full productive peak.
A blueberry bush can live for 40 to 50 years, producing berries until it dies.
Because many of the bushes now producing berries are just a few years old, the
glut could get worse as the bushes mature and produce even more berries per
acre in years to come.
Gill said friends of his in the industry are doing the only logical thing.
"I'm a hundred per cent sure they'll be bulldozing them [the bushes] and they
will do something else," Gill said.
Gill himself is considering plowing under some of his blueberry fields and
planting something else.
"I have to, because I need to feed my family," he said.
He said berry growing is a seven day a week, year-round job. He, his family and
about 10 contractors spent the winter trimming every bush on the farms to
improve yields.
The cost of farmland, which has also gone up, is also hurting some farmers.
"Many of my friends, they spent $80,000, $100,000 an acre when they bought it,
they can't afford the payments," Gill said. Gill himself farms about 40 acres
in Langley.
Gill said his berries will be shipped back east, to supermarkets in Ontario and
Quebec.
He's hoping for government help
to get the industry through the difficult adjustment it's now facing. A ban on
foreign berries coming into Canada would help local producers, he said.
Forget banning foreign berries! How about a ban on propane cannons
instead!!
