Okanagan grape harvest wiped out for 2024
Five days of extremely cold weather in January killed just about every wine grape bud in the Okanagan.
Thousands of primary and secondary buds were studied at the Summerland Research Centre and a number of wineries over the past few weeks. The secondary buds normally take over when the primary buds die.
“The results confirmed the industry’s worst fears, with the vast majority of samples showing no signs of life in their primary or secondary buds,” a report by Cascadia Partners for Wines of BC, released this week, says. “This means that the production of 100% BC grapes and wine is projected to be 97-99% lower than usual in 2024."
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But the news is worse for the Okanagan.
“Preliminary industry-wide estimates are that the crop will produce just 1-3% of typical yields, with the majority of that coming from unaffected regions such as the Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island,” the report says.
Temperatures from Jan. 11 to 15, were -20 Celsius or lower, which is devastating for wine grapevines. In some areas of the North Okanagan, it was below -20 C for a cumulative total of more than 50 hours.
The same methodology was used to evaluate this year’s damage as was done following a less severe cold snap in December 2022.
That estimated a 56% loss in the 2023 crop. In the end, that loss was 58%.
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The new report forecasts there will be as much as $346 million in revenue losses for vineyards and wineries and another $99 million in losses to suppliers and distributors for a total loss of up to $445 million.
Based on 2019 adjusted revenues, the report estimates that the industry could have generated $453 million this year without the killing cold of the last two winters.
That means that only about $8 million might be earned from this year’s crop and, again, that is more likely to be in the Fraser Valley and on Vancouver Island.
It’s still too early to tell how many grape vines died from the cold and will have to be replanted. It was estimated that the 2022 winter resulted in a need to replant 29% of the total acreage in the Okanagan.
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