On the way that deal is working, one retailer said they were going to use the Ontario board's minimum price. So when the Ontario board set their price at $2, delivered to the distribution centres in Ontario, they said that price would work in Quebec, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. If our guys were shipping to the distribution centre in Moncton or Debert, they had to meet that price. That might be doable on the whites, but as you know, with Yukon Gold it's very difficult to get a yield from that variety. It deserves a premium, and must have a premium, if you want growers to continue to produce it for consumers.
We share that information with the retailers. The retailers are not bad people, but they set these prices, and there's always someone who's desperate enough or has a crop out and no storage who will sell at that. That's what we're working against. If someone sells it at that price, it's very difficult for others to turn down that business. It just can't happen. Our yellow varieties are down 25% in Prince Edward Island this year, and reds are down at a higher percentage than that.
People want choice in the stores, and our growers want to give them choice, but they can't do it at a loss year after year.
On the processing side, that's very real and very scary. It would be difficult for a producer to come to address these things. I'm glad Greg's doing what he can on his side with the cherries. But for our producers to come here and tell you they paid $1,100 a tonne for fertilizer this year while people in Manitoba paid $750 for potato fertilizer or $750 for Russian fertilizer--look at that price impact on a farmer.