Court orders BC Tree Fruits to sell all assets, growers fear imported fruit take-over

It’s a sad reality for the members of the BC Tree Fruits Cooperative after the BC Supreme Court ordered the sale of all its assets.

“It’s frustrating, sitting there and watching it unfold, when we know that the problem can be fixed, we just need the help,” said former BCTFC board member and Kelowna fruit grower Amarjit Lalli.

According to court documents, the co-op owes $53,236,756.41 to secured creditors, including $50,825,051.81 to the Canadian Imperial Banking Corporation.

Lalli is now looking to the government for assistance.

“The help is in the form of the government stepping in and saying ‘You know what, we’ll back your guys’ loan, we’ll help you restructure,'” said Lalli.

However, another former BC Tree Fruits board member says the fate of the company is already sealed.

“When you’re $50 million in debt and paying interest on that type of loan, that’s growers’ money, that’s money basically out of my pocket – we need to return as much money as possible to the growers,” said Mike Mitchell, owner of B & T Orchards Ltd.

According to Mitchell, more than half of the growers in the Okanagan have found a packing facility, with some renting controlled atmospheric storage across the border.

“At the end of the day all the money comes out of the growers’ pockets, it’s just another added increase to their overhead costs,” said Mitchell.

Harvest season is just weeks away and there’s now limited local controlled atmospheric storage, which keeps the apples fresh longer.

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“BC Tree Fruits would always put probably 50 to 60 per cent of their crop into CA storage and at Christmas time open them systematically, providing all the apple varieties throughout the year,” said Mitchell.

The concern among some growers is if the local apple inventory runs out too soon, imported fruit from the U.S. could take over the market and lead to consumers paying higher prices for apples.

“There’s a potential there won’t be any local fruit after Christmas or small amounts, opening the door up for imports and raising the costs,” said Mitchell.

In a statement, B.C’s agriculture minister Pam Alexis said, “To date, the ministry connected 120 out of 179 co-op members with private packers and 73,000 bins of apples have been shipped to packing houses.”