B.C. Tree Fruits has shut down, leaving 230 members without its marketing services.
Until the 1970s it had a government monopoly on marketing British Columbia’s fruits harvests. It continued packing and marketing fruit, but faced competition.
“There is widespread panic at the moment,” said Melissa Tesche, general manager of BC Tree Fruit Growers Association, in an interview with the Toronto Globe and Mail.
She said many apple growers have nowhere to send their produce when they begin harvesting in September.
Her association is independent of BC Tree Fruits but represents many of the same growers.
The British Columbia vintners and fruit growers were already devastated by winter weather than killed buds. There are, for example, hardly any grapes growing.
