“For over 50 years, there has been almost no genetic improvement of saskatoons, no systematic streamlined breeding that has been successfully done because saskatoon berry cultivars … won’t successfully cross,” said Anže Švara in an online article from the university.

WHY IT MATTERS: New varieties of saskatoon berries are historically difficult to develop.

Švara is an associate professor in the University of Saskatchewan’s plant science department. He is helping to lead a new project that will categorize saskatoon berry varieties to better understand their traits. The hope is this will identify characteristics that can potentially be selected for future new varieties.

The university houses around 2,000 saskatoon berry varieties collected over the decades.

“We have two key questions: can certain saskatoon berry plants breed with other saskatoon berry plants? And is there diversity that can be utilized to develop new varieties with improved traits?” said Švara in the article.

The university said it hopes the project will contribute to future innovative breeding projects and help berry growers.

Saskatoon berries present a particular challenge in breeding because some historically successful cultivars have four sets of chromosomes instead of two. Plants produce seedlings nearly identical to the parent plants, but it’s difficult to breed those plants with others to develop specific traits.

The project is funded through the federally-supported Agriculture Development Fund and by the Saskatchewan Fruit Growers Association.

The post Researcher tackles tricky traits of saskatoon berry for future variety development appeared first on Country Guide.

The report was full of predictions that came true, as well as a few surprises. This year’s report was the 16th annual.

Food prices were driven higher in 2025 by meat, said Sylvain Charlebois, the lead of Canada’s Food Price Report. Charlebois is the Director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University. He leads Canada’s Food Price Report, but the report was developed by a collective of scholars.

“In fact, we claimed last year that meat would be driving food inflation, and we underestimated how significantly meat prices would go up. That was really the big story in 2025,” he said.

Meat prices to stay high

Unfortunately, the group expects meat prices will remain a huge factor for 2026.

“Beef is an issue, of course, it’s been an issue for a while now, and we don’t see how the situation will normalize itself before at least mid-year 2027,” he said. “Ranchers are leaving the industry. It’s difficult for ranchers across North America.”

The high prices of beef are encouraging people to change to other types of meat, like chicken.

“We’re short on chicken because of higher beef prices. The situation with beef is really a major issue for meat counter economics in general,” he said.

Chicken raised in Canada is under supply management.

“Supply shouldn’t be a problem, but it is a problem right now, because we’re importing more chicken from abroad. But I don’t think that is going to last. I do think the chicken industry will recover eventually. It’s kind of awkward to have supply management and import more chicken from the United States right now,” he said.

Fruit and vegetable inflation down

Vegetables and fruits had their inflation rates go down in 2025 compared to 2024.

“We were expecting increases to be in the positive, but the increases didn’t accelerate as much as we expected,” he said.

The group thought the “Buy Canadian” movement and the entire American boycott would put a lot of pressure on grocers to source products that are cheaper or the same price in America.

“But we were spared, and I think that’s due to the Canadian dollar. I think the Canadian dollar remained a non-issue. That came as a surprise, I would say,” said Charlebois.

Food affordability is a top concern for consumers. A quarter of Canadian households are considered food insecure, and nearly 2.2 million people visited food banks in Canada monthly this year.

Charlebois said there are numerous factors that affect food prices including geopolitics, global weather events, policy enactment, consumer behaviour and changes in retail models. Energy costs, climate change, interest rates, labour costs, the level of consolidation in a sector, and consumer demand, including whether consumers have more money or less money to spend on food.

“These are the things that impact food prices over time. But the bottom line is that not one node of the growth of the food supply chain totally controls food prices,” he said.

Trade wars affect food prices

In 2025, food prices were affected by the trade dispute between Canada and the United States and subsequent policy changes. Consumer-led movements also altered the economic retail landscape, impacting food price inflation.

Charlebois said farmers would say there’s a weak correlation between protein prices, and retail prices, and they’re correct to say so.

“So even though there is a weak correlation between the two, production does have an impact on how food is sourced to supply grocery stores in general,” he said.

When people spend more money at the grocery store, the farmer gets a bigger proportion of the farm bill. With retail, 13 to 15 per cent of the money spent at the grocery store goes back to the farmer compared to food service, where about four per cent to five percent goes back to the farmer from food service.

“Right now, there is a strong movement towards staying retail for consumers, because they’re trying to save as much money as possible, and they’re avoiding restaurants, so that could actually be a positive for farmers in general,” said Charlebois.

Temporary foreign workers

Temporary foreign workers are widely used along the food supply chain. In 2024, Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program brought in over 78,000 workers into the agricultural industry. The Canadian government is revisiting its immigration policy and has announced plans to reduce the share of temporary residents in Canada to less than five per cent of the population by 2027, to encourage more domestic labour and improve youth employment rates. Agriculture is exempt from this cap.

The current population of temporary foreign workers is at seven per cent.

There are concerns that shifts with temporary workers could lead to a major labour shortage in agriculture, disrupting the supply chain and costing businesses already operate on tight margins. The costs would be passed down to the consumer.

Charlebois said the research team is concerned about the temporary foreign worker problem.

“It’s a very important program to support our farmers,” he said. The information about temporary foreign workers was added to Canada’s Food Price Report, to send a clear signal to government that the temporary foreign worker program in agriculture should not be compromised, he said.

Food bill to rise “a lot”

The report also contains predictions for 2026.

“We’re expecting the average family (of four) to see their food bill increased by $1,000, so we’re expecting an increase of four to six per cent, so that’s a lot. I believe it’s the highest we’ve ever seen in 16 years. That’s going to be pushed by two categories; meat and the centre of the store. That’s pantry goods and dry goods. This is not going to help consumers,” he said.

“We think it’s going to push inflation higher,” he said.

The ongoing trade dispute with the United States will continue to affect prices next year. The inflationary aspects of the tariffs and counter-tariffs will continue in 2026 as trade tensions reshape the economic landscape. Canada is strengthening its relationships with other international trading partners to build resilience and competitiveness.

The post Canada’s Food Price Report shows meat, pantry goods prices expected to rise “a lot” in 2026 appeared first on Country Guide.

Nielsen’s experience in public policy, trade and global development spans two decades and includes positions with Export Development Canada, food aid non-profit Nutrition International and Global Affairs Canada.

Nielsen, in the newly-created role, will lead policy development and research initiatives and engage governments and other stakeholders on the interests of the Canadian fruit and vegetable sector.

Nielsen’s “talent for forging strategic partnerships, will be pivotal as FVGC intensifies its efforts to deliver results for Canadian growers” said Fruit and Vegetable Growers executive director Massimo Bergamini in a news release.

“As the voice of Canadian fruit and vegetable growers, FVGC must ensure their priorities and concerns are heard and acted on,” said Bergamini.

After assuming the role mid-August, Nielsen will reach out to FVGC members to gain more insight into the sector.

“I’m excited to work alongside such a dedicated team to advance policies that strengthen the sector and ensure Canadians continue to have access to healthy, sustainable food,” Nielsen said in the release.

The post Fruit and Vegetable Growers of Canada appoint policy lead appeared first on Country Guide.

Exports of greenhouse-grown cucumbers also equal or exceed imports.

“Canada continues to rely heavily in imported fruits and vegetables, especially during its long winters,” wrote FCC senior economist Amanda Norris in a May 28 report.

“Different types of controlled environment agriculture (CEA) are gaining momentum to overcome this problem.”

While greenhouses are the most recognized form of controlled environment agriculture, the category also includes insect farming, aquaculture, lab-grown meat, and vertical farming, Norris added.

Opportunities

Due to their extended growing season and ability to stack crops vertically to reduce footprint, greenhouse-grown crops tend to yield more per acre than the same fruits and vegetables grown outdoors.

Canadian greenhouses can typically operate for nine months out of the year.

“The advantage is striking, ranging from five times more pounds per acre for tomatoes to an impressive 30 times more for herbs,” said Norris.

Along with growth in peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes, greenhouse-grown strawberries have also gained ground in Canada. Production went from neglible in 2020 to 16.5 million pounds in 2024.

Canada has also added 70 new operations and 19 per cent more greenhouse area since 2013 outside of Ontario, the hotspot for greenhouse ag.

Lettuce, herbs and strawberries represent areas for further expansion.

“To realize this opportunity, Canada must invest in practices to boost productivity through labour and resource saving technologies, research and development for new crops, and explore ways to bring CEA to more regions,” Norris wrote.

Downsides

Most fruits and vegetables Canadians eat come from outdoor farms or imports because many crops aren’t suited to indoor environments. Potatoes, for instance, require deep, loose soil.

Controlled environment agriculture—like much of agriculture—requires a lot of capital to set up due to the many systems and technology involved.

Operating expenses are also rising—up six per cent annually on average over the last decade. Sales rose by 6.4 per cent over the same period, which kept margins a bit above break-even.

Greenhouse agriculture also faces a labour crunch. The number of workers under age 60 has shrunk an average of eight per cent annually for the past five years.

Greenhouses also find themselves competing for limited municipal infrastructure like energy, water and waste services. This makes building or expanding more challenging.

“Investment and the adoption of technology will be crucial to overcoming high operational costs, address labour and infrastructure constraints, and allow the sector to reach its full potential,” Norris said.

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In that way, 10 years can seem like a lot of time. Yet in others, such as when managing a busy farm, it can pass in the blink of an eye.

And that decade is certainly filled with vast knowledge acquisition, unexpected surprises and important insights. To capture some of those experiences and advice, Country Guide asked a few farmers from across Canada to share the biggest lessons learned during their first 10 years in agriculture.

Lesson: Diversify

In 2014, Rebecca Papadopoulos and her husband George purchased Keating Farm, one of the oldest farms on Vancouver Island, with a goal of building a diversified farm. Although the property needed serious TLC, it had a lot of the infrastructure the couple needed to start farming.

“We had orchards that were already here,” says Papadopoulos. “It was pretty amazing to buy a piece of property and our first year here, we were harvesting apples and pears.”

During four years of extensive renovation on the 28-acre farm, Papadopoulos used the available resources to begin generating sales and focused on executing a long-term plan. Keating Farm started selling pressed juices made from the fruit growing in the established orchards and expanded into eggs, honey, turkey, chicken, pork and lamb in 2018. The farm is also an agritourism destination and offers lodging for overnight visitors.

A “farm angel” mentored the engineering project manager and paramedic turned farmers on how to raise livestock and develop products for the farm. A diversified approach helped Keating Farm overcome significant obstacles with individual crops, including storms that had an impact on their apple harvest and pests that decimated their beehives.

“Things that are very much outside of our control happen every year,” Papadopoulos says. “Every time something like that happens, I think, ‘I’m glad I’m not just a honey farmer because this year we would have been done,’ or ‘I’m glad I’m not just an apple farmer because we would be (in trouble).’ So, it’s really made me a strong believer in diversification.”

Diversification has also been essential in making the Keating Farm financially viable. Individually, none of the products that the couple produce generate enough revenue to run the farm. Expanding into multiple product lines and adding agritourism have been essential to their continued survival.

“Agritourism has actually been our absolute best possible marketing tool,” says Papadopoulos. “It turned out to be the best possible marketing strategy for direct-to-consumer sales.”

But diversification comes with challenges and Papadopoulos has spent the past decade learning to navigate them. Regulatory hurdles have been the hardest to overcome.

“Every product that we raise has its own set of regulations associated with it,” she says. “For diversified farmers like us with eight or nine products, I have to go out and familiarize myself with the set of regulations for every one of those products.”

Now that the farming operation is “dialed in,” Papadopoulos wants to help other farmers create diversified, sustainable farms, explaining, “There are a lot of great opportunities for collaborative workshops… and to share our knowledge.”

Lesson: Invest in the future

Morgan Smallman joined the family farm full-time in 2014 and quickly realized there were generational differences when it came to farm planning.

“I was 28 years old and pretty excited about everything and I wanted to expand,” Smallman recalls. “My father and my uncle are at the end of their farming career, so they’re thinking about an exit strategy, where I want to farm 20 years and make it profitable. It’s an interesting dynamic to be to be working in… because there are three of us and if we’re making decisions, everybody has to be on board.”

Smallman took part in a farm transition workshop offered through Farm Management Canada that helped the family come up with a plan and honed their communication skills. He calls it “the best decision we ever made as a farm.” Now, he meets with his dad and uncle once a week to talk through farm issues and ensures the lines of communication remain open during the transition.

The process helped Smallman advocate for changes he felt were important, including investing in new technology to make the Ola, P.E.I. potato farm more efficient and profitable. He had the experience to back up his plan.

The sixth-generation farmer graduated with a double minor in business and plant science and worked in crop insurance, GPS sampling and soil health before moving back home join J and J Farms.

Smallman helped the farm expand from 200 acres of potatoes to 500 acres. He was also part of the decision to scale back the acreage after recognizing it wasn’t feasible to farm on such a large scale with older equipment and older workers.

He’s focused on improving soil health and upgrading technologies to include a GPS-enabled tractor and new potato washer. “It’s taken the farm to the next level being able to work with these tools that are out there.”

Along the way, Smallman has dealt with challenges from hurricanes to potato wart to COVID. The struggles have solidified his commitment to embracing sustainable farming strategies, such as cover crops and slow-release fertilizer. He has plans to make additional investments over the next decade, including installing solar panels and selling power back to the grid.

These initiatives require upfront investments, but Smallman hopes they will offer significant long-term dividends — and could help expand their contracts with companies, such as Frito Lay, that have encouraged their growers to use green energy and other sustainable efforts.

“I want to be the early adopter on those environmental issues,” he says. “We’ve seen that it has an effect and that we’ll be incentivized to do it and I think it’s a good way to keep moving forward.”

Lesson: Be prepared to pivot

First-generation farmer Amber Rowse-Robinson was so excited about raising livestock on her East Sooke, B.C. farm that she introduced chickens, ducks and goats in the first year. Her plan was to farm as a hobby, not a business, but strong interest in her pastured meat led Rowse-Robinson to pivot.

“We started opening up sales just to friends and family. I realized that it was an amazing privilege to be able to feed people food that they really valued and felt like they had a connection with,” she recalls. “And that’s what really spurred the business on. I realized, ‘If I could do this on a bigger scale, that would be pretty great.’”

Brass Bell Farm has gone through significant changes since Rowse-Robinson started farming in 2009. She expanded the farm to include cattle and the demand for grass-fed beef on the island was strong. The farm developed a unique niche, but everything changed when a 2023 drought fried their pastures and made it impossible to purchase hay. Rowse-Robinson made the decision to sell the cattle.

“What it would have cost to bring in feed to keep them going was not in our budget and was not going to make sense from a business perspective,” she says. “I made the really hard decision of letting them go.”

Rowse-Robinson shifted her focus to sheep. While there had been a few ewes on the farm since the beginning, she recognized that sheep were well-suited to the climate and easier to sustain during drought. Sheep were also easier for Rowse-Robinson, who farms mostly solo with occasional help from her husband, to manage on her own. The fact that there were multiple revenue streams from a single flock was also attractive.

Brass Bell Farm purchased a flock in 2024, and Rowse-Robinson plans to establish a dairy, sell lambs to local farms and restaurants, and, eventually, market the fibre. The shift, she acknowledges, was difficult, but also exciting.

“Pivoting from the focus on beef to sheep was fairly significant,” she says. “In the moment it felt awful… I’d made all this progress and a lot of sacrifices over the years to build up what we had and then I saw it all driving away in the back of a trailer. Once I had my time to be heartbroken, I was ready to tackle the next thing.”

Her 15 years of experience has included a lot of trial and error, but Rowse-Robinson feels more confident in planning for the next decade.

“We probably have a clear idea of what we want to do and how we’re going to do it,” she says. “And if we can make these systems viable, we can support new and young farmers to get their start.”

Lesson: Never stop learning

Jim Lavers got the idea to grow Christmas trees from a tree farming friend in Nova Scotia who wanted to expand in Ontario. After researching the local market, he realized that many local Christmas tree farms had gone out of business and decided to fill the gap by starting the Christmas Tree Farm. There was just one problem: Lavers and his wife, Deni, spent their entire careers in the military and had no experience in agriculture.

“The learning curve was quite steep,” he recalls. “We joined the Christmas Tree Farmers of Ontario before we even bought a farm and spent the next two years basically learning everything we could.”

Taking a tactical approach to farming served Lavers well. He attended association meetings and field days, took business planning classes and met with mentors before the first saplings were planted at their Harrowsmith, Ont. farm in 2012.

Growing Christmas trees has proven challenging. Lavers has dealt with poor soil depth, gypsy moth infestations and climate change. A 2016 drought wiped out 2,500 trees — more than half of his plantings — and made him question whether to continue farming.

“It was really eye-opening for us,” he says.

The support of mentors and advice from other growers led to the decision to install an irrigation system that helped them get back on track. Even at peak production, the Christmas Tree Farm can’t meet the demand for locally grown Christmas trees.

The farm sold 1,750 trees in 2024, including 600 trees cut fresh from the farm with the rest shipped in from other growers. Tourism is a huge element of their business and the “Hallmark experience” draws thousands of visitors around the holidays.

Although Lavers has run a successful Christmas tree farm for more than 10 years, he still looks for opportunities to learn new things. He participates in association meetings and workshops, attends field days and reads about the latest agritourism trends.

Lavers is also eager to share his knowledge with the next generation of growers. He shares his contact information with new members of Christmas Tree Farmers of Ontario and has invited potential growers to the farm to get more information. Growing Christmas trees is a long game, he explains, and he wants to make sure that potential farmers have the information they need to make smart decisions.

“You have to learn your discipline before you start. You absolutely cannot walk onto a farm and expect to start raising Christmas trees without getting the required background,” he says.

“We’re always open for people interested in doing a like-minded thing to learn from us.”

The post Ten years on the farm appeared first on Country Guide.

Seventy-six percent of producers said extreme weather had an impact on their operations over the past five years, with 34 per cent saying they were significantly impacted.

In Nova Scotia, the last decade has seen an increased number of hurricanes, late frosts, drought, drier springs, wetter falls and a polar vortex. The impact can be seen across all types of agriculture and producers find themselves pivoting to meet the challenges head on.

Lisa Jenereaux, co-owner of Spurr Brothers Farms in the Annapolis Valley, says they’ve seen the gamut when it comes to weather and admits it’s been challenging.

As a fifth-generation fruit farmer, her family has grown apples and potatoes in the region for decades.

“Our farm has always been diversified,” she says. “If you have a lot of different stuff, then if you have a bad year in one thing, you can hopefully make it up with something else. It kind of levels off.”

She says that hasn’t been the case for the last five years.

“We’ve had losses. They’re more significant, and they’re affecting many crops.”

While the federal government offers some support to farmers, Jenereaux says the programs aren’t suited to most Nova Scotia growers, who are almost penalized for being diversified.

She says insurance helps but you can’t go back to that well repeatedly without repercussions, such as increased rates.

They knew they had to do something different.

• RELATED: Outdoor weather affects indoor crops, too

Go big or do something different

Spurr Brothers used to farm over 200 acres of potatoes, and they considered expanding.

“You either have to be niche, or big. We had to decide where to put our focus,” says Jenereaux.

When they looked at the cost to “go big,” Jenereaux and her partners (brother, William Spurr, and cousin, Katie Campbell) decided to look for something outside of agriculture.

They opened a farm market and began to make and sell hard cider.

The market was a relatively easy pivot, she explains. They already had a small farm market where they sold apples and other vegetables, and Spurr had been making cider as a hobby for several years. They built a new building, added a greenhouse, created public spaces and made it an attractive destination for families.

Jenereaux says it’s worked out better than expected in some ways. Not only have they created a hub for the community with family-focused weekend events, but if the strawberry crop ripens too quickly due to a heat wave, they can pick and freeze them for use in cider later. Before that option existed, the crop would have been lost.

She says they focus on ways to mitigate the worst of the impacts caused by weather.

For example, it’s important to manage the amount of water around fruit trees, because the root stock can’t tolerate sitting in water. “In fruit trees, we always do tile drainage. We’ve had more and more weather events with massive rainfall, and floods are more of an issue,” says Jenereaux.

To combat wind, which could easily flatten a modern orchard, all new plantings use a trellis system.

“We put the posts closer together, and every post is in the ground as deep as possible, no exceptions. If the post won’t go in, we’re getting the backhoe and digging that post in. We’re using more wires. There’s no room for error.”

Another change over the last few years is that now all the orchards are irrigated.

“It’s been getting a lot hotter a lot earlier,” she explains. “Spring used to be our wet time, but we’re seeing a lot of dry spells in May and June.”

In the past she wouldn’t turn on irrigation until July, maybe late June. “Now there are times in late-May when I’m thinking ‘I better get this irrigation going.”

She says water is always top of mind now when they plant a new field or orchard.

“You might have chanced it before, we’d have a couple of weeks of dry weather and then you’re going to get rain,” she says. “But now, you could go for four weeks without any significant rainfall. So, when we’re planting that’s our highest priority. Do we have a pond big enough, do we have a water source large enough? It’s not just supplemental anymore, you might have to water your crop for the entire season, and that’s a big shift.”

On the flip side is the cold. Late spring frosts can kill a berry crop or reduce the apple yield. While not much can cost-effectively be done in the orchards, Jenereaux says they use fabric covers and overhead irrigation on the strawberry fields to mitigate damage.

Long-term pasture management pays off

Jenereaux isn’t the only producer noticing issues with water. On Nova Scotia’s Northumberland shore, John Duynisveld, and his daughter Maria, of Holdanca Farms also worry about water.

Holdanca Farms is the 2024 recipient of The Environmental Stewardship Award (TESA) from Canadian Cattles Association. Duynisveld says his father started managing the farm with a focus on the environment in 1988 when he implemented rotational grazing.

And, while weather has always been a variable, he’s noticed how it’s changed in the last few years.

“We get extremes of dry or wet weather. In 2020 our rainfall levels were 25 per cent less than normal,” he says. “From June to September, we had a significant drought… by our standards.”

He says the summer was so dry beef and sheep producers started feeding hay in August.

It was the first year since 1988 that he had to feed supplemental feed before January.

“We got close to normal grazing, but we had to vary paddock size based on the number of cows, how much grass was ahead and to allow grass time to recover.”

It was the opposite in 2023. The summer was very wet, and the sun never shone.

“We couldn’t make hay,” he said. “Winter feed is typically hay-bale grazing. In 2023 we didn’t hay, but we had a huge amount of leftover forage on the pastures and continued to graze until February 7, until our first major snowfall came. We still had feed left on the fields after that, and they were back on pasture the 7th of April,” says Duynisveld.

He says the decades of rotational grazing and pasture management has helped build resiliency on his land. “It helps me raise a good product and it reduces personal stress.”

The pastures support approximately 25 head of his own cattle, around 100 ewes plus lambs, and he provides custom pasturing for another 60 to 100 head of cattle for other farmers.

Additionally, he grazes about 5,000 chickens, 600 turkeys and a couple hundred laying hens. Theres’s also between 150 to 160 pastured pigs.

But the effect of changing weather is about more than enough pasture to graze.

“We’re (also) seeing changes with parasite loads. In 2023 we had more rain, less frost and more parasites were able to overwinter. There was nothing to set them back,” Duynisveld says.

Increased summer heat is something Duynisveld also takes seriously.

“The last two summers we’ve had the longest period of heat stress. In June and July, we had two to four weeks in a row, versus two, three, four days. It impacts productivity.

“We’re changing fences and pasture layouts to incorporate more shade,” he explains. “Fields that are more wet, we’re looking at ditching and planting shelter belts with controlled access. The ditches cross the fields, and a series of ponds collect the water. There’s potential to apply this strategy to over 100 acres.”

On the flip side of dry summers is a delayed winter.

“Our winters are milder, which on one hand means we can extend grazing.”

Duynisveld says in the 1990s he couldn’t put a fence post in the ground after November because it was frozen solid. This year he could put a post in anywhere until January.

“In the fall, things are growing later. Our last 10 years of moving sheep, even in mid-November we’re seeing an inch or inch-and-a-half of growth. That’s much later than before.”

But he worries about the lack of snow cover.

“We were dry from early August to late November. The water table hasn’t recovered. We have a system and it’s normally flowing steady this time of year. Right now it’s barely a trickle. This is the flip side of not having the snowpack and the spring dampness.”

His holistic approach means he’s pivoting to adapt to the challenges by letting some pastures over-mature and go a little heavy. He looks at the other species living there for validation he’s doing the right thing.

“My daughter does ‘bio-blitzes’ to identify living organisms. We have well over 1,000 species, 140 native pollinators. Small changes help us all with overall resilience to the extremes in weather.”

Some like it hot

The lack of water and heat are a boon for some producers.

Back in the Annapolis Valley, in an area known as the Gaspereau Valley, farms like Luckett Vineyards are noticing the changes in weather too.

Vineyard manager Marcel Kolb came to the area 19 years ago from Switzerland. He’s noticed a change since he arrived, but says it’s gotten more significant in the past five or six years.

“We used to talk about global warming, now we look at the extremes, we brace ourselves,” he says.

Wind, rain, heat, cold, too much, too little, or simply at the wrong time, can cost a crop.

For vineyards, warmer weather later into the fall and earlier in the spring, extends the growing season. Kolb says budding starts earlier, and the harvest can run later.

“Now we’re hoping for snow (as) it’s a water source (to) fill our reserves and ponds. This wasn’t a concern 20 years ago.”

While the lack of water is a concern, the area where Lucketts is located is on heavy loam soil. Kolb says new vineyards must install tile drainage to protect the vine roots, which extend deep, from too much water.

“Two years ago, we had 250-280 mm of rain, and we couldn’t get rid of it fast enough. In 2024 we had almost no rain for over two months. Should we have had irrigation? Maybe. It might have improved the overall yield, but it isn’t feasible yet in the vineyard.”

Planting clovers, grasses and legumes between the vines helps improve soil drainage and nutrient management through organic matter. These areas also provide habitat for beneficial insects and birds.

While the lack of snow is an issue, extreme temperature swings are more challenging and harder to manage.

“The polar vortex was a perfect storm. Two weeks earlier we had warm weather, Mother Nature had started to wake up, then the cold air hit.”

The result was devastating. Not only did producers lose the year’s crop, but whole sections of vines had to be replanted.

Late spring frosts are a worry, but producers mitigate them with a variety of tricks.

“The buds are swelling then, and a frost can cause damage,” says Kolb. “We can’t do row covers because they’re difficult in a vineyard. Some producers have installed windmills or use sprayers. We have automated propane heaters. We can’t do the whole vineyard, but we can use them in the higher-quality areas.”

Changing temperatures mean a different type of pivot for vintners.

“Over the last 10 years, we’ve seen a lot of new varieties, such as Chardonnays and Rieslings, which are more adaptive to the weather and are better designed for our area.”

He adds that change can benefit consumers because more choice is locally available.

“These days you can get everything from sparkling to ice wines and everything in between.”

Kolb often thinks about where they’re headed in the next 10 years.

“Change is happening, everybody can see it. It (will be) interesting to see how we can adapt. We have to make crops more resilient.”

Weather data points to climate variances

The anecdotal evidence of hotter, drier summers, more frequent heavy rain events and milder winters is backed by data collected by Environment and Climate Canada.

Ian Hubbard, a meteorologist with the department, says the weather is definitely changing.

Data from Greenwood, in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley, shows that from 2001 to 2024 the humidex jumped over 42 C 10 times. Three of those events were in 2018, one in 2019 and another in 2022.

“In a typical summer we’d have a couple days where we talk about these kinds of humidex values,” Hubbard says. “We’ve seen an increase in the number of consecutive days the past few summers. That affects people, animals and vegetation.”

Ironically, 2018 and 2019 also saw rainfall significantly higher than average.

However, rainfall was less than the annual average in seven of the last 10 years. In 2023, Greenwood reported its driest summer in nearly a decade.

Hubbard says springs have been getting drier, pointing out that 2023 was exceptionally dry for the region. However, in July of that year there was significant rainfall of over 200 mm.

“That was rarer than a one-in-100-year storm,” he says. “The last comparable storm with that much rain would have been Hurricane Beth in 1971.”

What really stands out for him are the number of named storms in the Atlantic Basin. This is where hurricanes form and while many of them don’t make it this far north, the area has seen an increase in the number of storms reaching Atlantic Canada.

The hurricane season runs from June 1 to the end of November and is at its peak in September and October during prime harvest season for many crops including apples, grains and grapes.

“In a normal year, there would be 14 named storms in the basin which would strengthen to become hurricanes,” he says. “This past season there were 18. The last several years there have been at least 14.”

Hubbard says while the numbers may fluctuate from year to year, they do expect future storms to become stronger, contain more rain and more wind.

Other extreme events in the region included the arctic blast in February of 2023. The area saw temperatures plummet to -25 C when a mass of cold air sat over the region for days. The extreme cold came on the heels of a week of mild temperatures. Reports show the rapid temperature switch damaged many crops.

Overall, Hubbard says the data paints a picture of extreme weather occurring more often.

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Inside the domes, researchers are growing pears in a controlled environment that simulates how climate change will affect the region in 2040. Their aim is to see what global warming has in store for Europe’s fruit growers.

“We expect more heatwaves and less even precipitation, so more droughts and floods as well. And overall, slightly higher temperatures,” Francois Rineau, associate professor at the University of Hasselt, said of the simulated climate inside the domes.

Early results from the scientists’ first harvest in 2023 suggest Belgian pears may be spared some of the worst impacts of climate change – which scientists expect to cut some crop yields and hike growers’ costs for irrigation to combat drought.

“The effect of climate change at the 2040 horizon on the quality of pears was very minor. However, we found a difference in how the ecosystem was functioning,” Rineau said, noting that an earlier growing season in the 2040 simulation appeared to result in the ecosystem absorbing more CO2.

Year-to-year variability means that one year alone cannot capture intermittent extreme weather and other changes in the climate which can wreak havoc on crops. The three-year experiment will cover three harvests.

This year’s harvest of 2040-era pears is being studied at the Flanders Centre of Postharvest Technology (VCBT), to check the fruits’ size, firmness and sugar content – and compare them to pears grown in domes simulating today’s climate.

“If we have a higher temperature on the trees, pears tend to be less firm and have more sugar,” VCBT researcher Dorien Vanhees said.

That’s bad news for growers. Less-firm fruit survives a shorter period in storage, reducing the quantity of pears growers can sell.

Floods, hail and drought have already affected European pear growers in recent years, as climate change begins to leave fingerprints on growing patterns.

Belgium’s pear production is expected to plunge by 27 per cent this year, according to the World Apple and Pear Association, owing to factors including an unusually early bloom and unusually late frost.

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The company, owned by private equity firm Paine Schwartz Partners, has about $679 million in debt, and plans to sell its business in bankruptcy, according to bankruptcy court documents (all figures US$).

Prima grows peaches, nectarines, plums and apricots on its 18,000 acres of farmland in California’s San Joaquin Valley.

Prima has struggled under its high debt load, and it has also faced significant setbacks since 2020, including a salmonella outbreak that led to a recall of peaches in the U.S. and the 2020 Creek Fire in California, which damaged orchards and reduced crop yields and quality.

Prima will try to find a buyer for its assets by November, hoping to avoid an upcoming cash crunch between its profitable harvest seasons. Prima has about $26 million in cash, and it could run out of money by January 2024 if it doesn’t find a buyer before next year’s harvest season begins in May, according to court documents.

If no buyer emerges, Prima will pivot to a debt restructuring or a liquidation of its business, according to court documents.

The company was formed from a 2019 merger of Gerawan Farming Inc. and Wawona Packing Company. The company had over $300 million in sales revenue in 2022, with 60 per cent of that coming from sale of peaches, according to court documents.

— Dietrich Knauth reports on U.S. bankruptcy and product liability law for Reuters from New York City.

The post Major U.S. peach producer files for bankruptcy to pursue sale appeared first on Country Guide.

Contracts for frozen concentrated orange juice (FCOJ) at ICE hit a high of $3.292/lb. during the session, the second highest price ever, just shy of the record of $3.3175/lb. seen on Aug. 17 (all figures US$).

Florida’s orange crop this year was already on the way to being small, only around half the size it produced just two years ago, due to diseases and erratic weather. The hurricane will exacerbate the situation.

“There is little hope for a bigger crop next year,” said commodities analyst Judith Ganes.

Fields in Florida were still recovering from the impact of hurricane Ian in 2019, while also suffering from a bacterial disease known as greening.

Authorities in Florida have yet to evaluate damage to infrastructure and agricultural production as the storm moved over to Georgia.

Also on Wednesday, Brazilian industry group CitrusBR said in a statement that stocks of orange juice at the end of the 2022-23 season (July-June) fell 40 per cent to 84,745 metric tonnes, the lowest level since the group started to collect the data 12 years ago.

CitrusBR said the fall is a result of a smaller-than-expected crop in the world’s largest orange juice producer and exporter, as well as falling juice yields from the fruits.

— Reporting for Reuters by Marcelo Teixeira.

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In its nation-wide survey, the bank found 21 per cent of Canadians had started buying more local products since the start of the pandemic, and a total 74 per cent said they’d buy even more in future.

Canada’s Food Price Report for 2021 also revealed a powerful new market driver for local. “Many consumers reported they had shopped locally in their own communities during the pandemic to support small business, and also because locally sourced food supply chains — especially in-season fresh produce — are less susceptible to border closures, trade disputes, and facility closures due to labour shortages,” the report stated.

It sounded like full speed ahead for local. But it hasn’t proved to be that simple.

Going deeper, a May 2021 survey from Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab (AAL) found that while 75.2 per cent of Canadians wanted grocers to carry more local products, only 47.4 per cent intended to buy more local.

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In other words, Canadians like the idea of being able to buy local more than they like actually buying it.

A June 2022 AAL study then found that when it combined its numbers for Saskatchewan and Quebec, only 17 per cent of respondents prioritized local foods for most of their meals every week.

The most important reasons those 17 per cent gave were to support farmers, the local economy and environmental sustainability. Very few respondents believed local foods were higher quality, more nutritious, more affordable, or even safer, the report said.

To AAL director Sylvain Charlebois, the take-home was clear. Canadians didn’t see that local foods could deliver more value to them as consumers, which meant that if the category was going to keep growing, local’s image needed serious work.

Lack of data

Consumers overall are price sensitive, and one reason why local’s share of the food market grew during the pandemic is that some consumers had higher disposable income, says James Vercammen, economist at the University of British Columbia.

But, Vercammen also says sales of local food in supermarkets didn’t change significantly during the pandemic. Instead, he concludes the rise in local’s market share reflected more buying outside of supermarkets. And that isn’t a large market.

“So I would be surprised if the market share of local food has risen by a significant amount during the pandemic,” Vercammen says.

Inflation

Canada’s economic outlook may also be tough news for local. “If people lose their jobs over the next couple of years, it’s going to be very difficult to engage them in local foods, because it’s all going to be about survival,” says Charlebois.

That runs counter to previous AAL surveys that concluded young consumers are prepared to fork over more for locally grown produce. A 2020 study found over half of Generation Z willing to pay a premium greater than 10 per cent for locally grown produce, with only 15.9 per cent stating that they were unwilling to pay any premium at all.

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Today, those findings have to be taken with a grain of salt as inflation forces buyers of all generations to reconsider their food buying decisions.

Food inflation ran over 10 per cent in 2022, and the most recent Canada’s Food Price Report predicts a five per cent to seven per cent food price increase in 2023, with the largest rises in vegetables, dairy and meat.

“These new generations never lived with high interest rates,” Charlebois points out. “It’s a wait-and-see scenario.”

Smart shoppers

Shoppers are tightening their food budgets, says Canada’s Food Price Report 2023, which means they’ll adopt strategies like buying more frozen instead of fresh fruits and vegetables as well as less premium meat.

That’s negative for local, and UBC’s Vercammen adds that with ongoing pressure on household income due to food price inflation, plus higher debt payments because of interest rates, the trend may be persistent.

“Apparently consumers are increasingly switching away from national brands towards less expensive store brands,” Vercammen says. “This makes me think that consumers will also be switching away from relatively expensive local food over the coming year.”

Local food producers will be under pressure to keep their offerings as affordable as possible, Charlebois agrees.

And local faces other challenges too. Even in B.C., the birthplace of the local food movement, there are barriers that go well beyond current economics, such as the high cost of land, a significant hindrance to the growth of local farms.

“With only small-scale production, we have limited processing capacity, and this limited capacity prevents supply from increasing. In other words, there is the classic chicken-and-egg problem,” Vercammen says.

Are imports really so bad?

While fruits and vegetables are B.C.’s main markets for local food, most of the hort crops that its shoppers buy (excluding apples, potatoes and some hot house crops) continue to be imported.

“Local supply is highly seasonal, and this seasonal supply must increasingly compete with imported produce,” Vercammen says. “In other words, even the share of local fruits and vegetables is relatively small, especially off-season.”

And even traditional seasonal offerings are disappearing, he’s found.

As a big fan of apples, Vercammen always looked forward to late October when fresh Okanogan apples arrived and supermarkets promoted them and sold them at discounted prices for a month or so. In recent years, however, the promotion and price discounts for bulk sale of newly harvested local apples largely disappeared, he says.

“Who is to blame? I expect it is a combination,” Vercammen says, yet it suggests the mass of consumers aren’t exactly hankering for the local crop, and that the supermarkets find it more profitable to sell the same apples all year. Both suggest an uphill battle for the local sector.

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