The Rural Voice, 2000-09, Page 46l
This year's apple crop
isn't too rosy for
growers in the Georgian
Bad area.
"The growers are caught
between a rock and hard place
. . . it's darn close to a
disaster." said Ed Farrar the
president of 150 -member
Georgian Bay Fruit Growers
Inc.
The combination of a warm
spring, followed by a late frost
damaged the apple blossoms at
a crucial time.
"It dropped our crop by 60
per cent of the five-year
average," said Farrar.
The combination of last
year's rock bottom prices and
this year's poor crop means
many of the growers are in
financial difficulties and Farrar
predicts many of them will
drop out of the apple business
altogether.
That's why Georgian Bay
Fruit Growers Inc. is fighting
hard to get some financial aid
to its growers as soon as
possible. The group is
lobbying the provincial
government to initiate the
Restart Program which will
help cover the cost of
removing standard old trees
which produce inferior fruit
and are holding the industry
back. said Farrar.
"We've come a long w ay in
the industry in the last 10
years. the growers having been
doing the best they can, but
now they need some financial
help." he said.
The growers association
past president Murray Loucks said it
was a real blow when the Ontario
Ministry. of Agriculture Food and
Rural Affairs closed its field office in
the heart of the Georgian Bay apple
growing region last year.
The office had served the apple
industry for 41 years so the
organization's executive went into
action. said Locks.
"We were able to negotiate with
the OMAFRA to keep Provincial
Apple Specialist Ken Wilson in this
area, so we won that battle," said
Loucks.
But the executive was unable to
Battling
together
Whether ifs government cutbacks or
bad weather, Georgian Bay apple
growers work together to battle adversity
By Roberta Avery
Weather conditions will greatly diminish this years
Georgian Bay -area apple crop.
get any commitment about what
happens when Wilson retires in a few
months, said Loucks.
"So we will have to go to battle
again, we produce 25 per cent of the
apples in the province, but we don't
even have a research station here,"
said Loucks.
That's why the growers' Research
and Development Committee
initiated a grower funded Integrated
Pest Management Program (IPM),
said Farrar.
Growers pay $650 each to
participate in the program, which
monitors the insect and disease
42 THE RURAL VOICE
population in a four -hectare
section of orchard.' If the
balance between beneficial
insects and the fruit damaging
insects gets out of proportion
and fruit damage is imminent a
small amount of chemical
control is applied.
"The older way was to go
out and spray anyway every
two weeks, now we don't
spray unless it's necessary,"
said Farrar.
The growers have hired
hree people to conduct the
program, said Farrar.
Growers participating in the
IPM get specific information
about pest control in their own
orchards, but a hotline that
gives all growers general
information on insect
populations is also maintained
by the program.
"These are just some of the
things we have to do for
ourselves since government
cutbacks," said Farrar.
The growers' organization
has also gone to bat for
orchard owners over the
increase in property tax
assessment for apple storage
facilities.
Under the new property tax
programs, many of the storage
facilities were classified as
commercial resulting in six
fold and more tax increases.
"Apples are a perishable
crop, but there is no way that
we can sell them all in the fall,
so we have to store them like
any agricultural product, but
that's not how the government
sees it," said Farrar.
Several members are still
fighting their assessments on their
storage facilities and the grower's
organization is sitting in on hearings
and supplying information to
tribunals, said Loucks.
Apple specialist Ken Wilson
agrees the Georgian Bay crop doesn't
look too rosy this year.
"It's a poor crop, the smallest I've
ever seen," said Wilson. The
problem stemmed from "disgusting
cold, wet weather" at bloom time and
overnight frosts late into the spring
when apples are forming, he said.
In a normal year the area located