As a family-run orchard business, we have done everything humanly possible to make agriculture viable. My two other brothers have pulled out of agriculture and are following other professions due to the lack of monetary return.
Following other concerns in our industry, it is no longer viable to stay in this industry due to poor grower returns and the high cost of production, especially in the past two or three years. Farm labour has now become a serious issue. In the 1980s there was a student work program by which the government paid the students at 50%. This allowed students to come into the farming industry.
There are many growers who have suggested this might be their last year of farming if this trend continues this year. A few years ago, we had to sell a house that we had owned as an investment in order to pay our bills in the orchard.
In order to keep this industry viable and able to survive, orchardists need a set cost of production in place through a government program that was originally set in place and promised to continue by the government in 1970 in exchange for the ALR land. This cost of production would be based on the packing house from the B.C. fruit packers, consisting of good-quality fruit. This would not be tonnage, but good-quality fruit. That would be made up of Extra Fancy 1, Extra Fancy, and Fancy apples. This would be an incentive to the growers to see light at the end of the tunnel and work hard toward the goal of producing quality fruit.
In the recent emergency meeting through BCFGA, with over 300 people in attendance, it was unanimously decided that if the cost of production was not set in place by the government and taken into consideration, we would take the ALR issue as a tool to fight as our right, to protect our industry from dying.
Farmers grow food and have to wait until the following year to see their payments, while everyone else gets paid--the employees, the pickers, the B.C. Fruit Packers, and our storage and packing house costs, etc. But farmers wait for their payment, and end up fighting for crumbs. We have to remember that farmers are the stump. If you cut that down, everyone else is out of their job.
The AgriStability program does not fully work because, as mentioned before, if you get two or three bad years your cost of margin goes down and there is little money, if anything, to replace it. The SR program has lingered on far too long. Growers can no longer afford to run this high-tax program. Although it was a wonderful program and became a good marketing tool to market our food, we continue to have to spray to keep up this program.
I would like to put forward a suggestion for a food tax, perhaps, on retailers and regulation of the retail industry by the government. Retailers have no interest in buying domestic food because it is imported at cheaper prices from Chile, China, and especially through dumping by the U.S.A. The retailers take advantage of local growers and their fruit.
How can we compete with these countries with their minimal costs of production and lower standards of regulation in growing food? As we all know, Canada has the highest and most rigorous standards of regulations to produce food. The cost of production in this country is so much higher. We pay an average of over $100 a day minimum, while China pays roughly $1 a day to their workers. Where is the protection for local growers to compete and survive with these figures?
There are so many growers who no longer have credit at the Fruit Growers Supply Company for chemicals and fertilizers because of lack of decent returns. This number can be confirmed, as there are over 25 growers I can no longer buy fertilizers and chemicals from. They are all in an odd predicament as to what to do and how to continue to work after they look after their orchards, because they no longer have working capital on hand. This is a concern because if they don't keep up their orchards, it will affect adjacent orchards as well.
To get to this year, in terms of purchasing chemical fertilizers, etc., the government needs to step in urgently to help with ad hoc payment immediately. This payment can go directly to Fruit Growers Supply Company as a credit to the growers, so they may continue to look after their orchards in a proper manner and not dig themselves deeper into a well.
It is my understanding that in Switzerland all the food grown there domestically gets sold first. Only when their food supply is depleted will they import food from other countries. Some people, even some government officials, may ask why agriculture should receive special programs. We have to keep in mind that agriculture is like no other industry, because it consists of growing food and is the hardest commodity to produce because we have to fight with Mother Nature along with other circumstances, whether it be cold, frost, rain, heat, or hail.
Now, this is something for all of you to ponder: you think you've become deranged when you start to wish for hail because only then can you make any money.
Unfortunately, this is the sentiment of a lot of growers. Yes, of course, it is a shame that we are left to resort to this, but who can you blame? For example, my uncle in Rutland said he fared very well last year because he got hail and made money through crop insurance.
In conclusion, the agricultural community is the proudest and most hard-working group of people who continue to grow food for all consumers. However, for the past few years, the situation has become unbearable and very critical, due to very low return that may put many orchardists out of business and change the landscape of agriculture for the worse with abandoned and cut-down orchards. As you all know, these changes could devastate the tourist destinations in the Okanagan Valley. Putting set costs of production in place will keep growers doing what they truly do best--growing food for all of us--and keep our agricultural community alive for future generations.
I personally have four children to support who all adore farm life, just as we did as kids. So please, don't make this my last year in farming, which it will be if there is no improvement in the industry. Please do what is right and help the growers in need.
I thank you for your time.