Okanagan farmers plead for government help in preserving BC Tree Fruits Co-op assets

More than 100 farmers, many of them members of the BC Tree Fruits Cooperative, gathered at a busy Kelowna, B.C., intersection Tuesday morning as they fight to save the co-op.

“I would like some sort of government to step in to protect the farmers of the Interior. Like it needs to be done,” said Kelly Wander, the rally’s organizer.

With a debt of $58 million, the co-op’s board filed for creditor protection two weeks ago, leaving some 300 Okanagan farmers in a grim situation in the middle of harvest.

They say smaller, private packing houses simply don’t have the capacity to meet the needs of farmers and their fruit.

“A lot of these people don’t have that storage. They can only store 12,000 bins and a lot of these farmers have over 50,000 to 100,000 bins. Where are they supposed to go,” asked Wander.

The urgent situation comes on the heels of several bad weather related crop years.

B.C.’s Supreme Court ordered the co-op to sell all of its assets last week  including the new, multi-million-dollar, state-of–the art packing house in Oliver.

“The Province took no stand at that last court hearing where the judge granted those assets be sold,” Wander said.  “Why is the government not stepping in.”

The affected farmers are desperately calling on the government to work with them in preserving those assets.

“We are asking the government to bring us back into operational by paying our loan on a term and condition plan,” Wander told Global News.

“We did have lots of crop loss, but there is lots of fruit coming off, like there are bumper crops that will be coming back. So it’s not like there is no money to pay the government back. We will have money to give the government back.”

B.C.’s agriculture ministry did not respond in time for publication.

According to Wander, a bid will be accepted by Nov. 15 with the successful bidder acquiring the asset or assets on Nov. 30.

Affected farmers are warning government inaction could come with dire consequences.

“There will be no farming industry, there will be no fruit. We don’t know,” said farmer Param Brar.  “What are we going to do in the future?”

Wander said the farmers are not giving up and will only up the ante as they plan their next move, which could include a convoy of tractors making its way to Victoria in an effort to make more noise.