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(HOWARD ALEXANDER / iNFOnews.ca)

After the BC Tree Fruit Cooperative shutdown, small packing houses are helping orchardists find a home for their harvest, but it isn’t addressing a root problem for farmers.

Farming Karma is a fruit packing facility in Kelowna that makes health oriented pop from local produce and grows its own crops as well.

CEO Avi Gill said they’re taking on as much produce as they can to help local farmers who relied on the co-op to move their harvest.

“We've been focused on taking on a healthy amount of volume that we can find good storage space for,” he said. “We have been able to help out some farming families with that abrupt closure and what they're doing with their fruit this year.”

Farming Karma also shipped some of their harvest to BC Tree Fruits in the past but they are finding ways to use as much fruit as they can. Gill said since the closure was so close to apple harvest season apple orchardists are still scrambling.

READ MORE: Officials scramble for a solution for Okanagan farmers after BC Tree Fruits collapse

“I know that the issue is a lot of the smaller farmers that have a lower number of bins and acres, they struggle even more to find that person,” he said. “We have openings for all sizes of farming operations, big or small. So, we encourage growers to reach out to us.”

He said this year will be challenging for farmers and packing facilities but the industry will adjust to the loss of BC Tree Fruits going forward.

“It's also hard for a packing facility to pivot. But I think that our packing house and others in the private sector are trying their best to find homes for this fruit,” he said. “Over the years, depending on how this pans out, I think the industry will be able to help the farmers.”

On Sept. 12 the provincial government announced it was diverting $4 million to pay out farmers who hadn’t been paid by BC Tree Fruits for their produce yet while the co-op goes through court proceedings.

READ MORE: Province providing $4M for BC tree fruit growers following co-op shutdown

Gill said the government money is a good step, and it’s good that the government is paying attention, but it doesn’t address the root problem for farmers. They often don’t get paid up front for their produce. 

“I always like to say farmers don't write invoices. They just get whatever's left over and comes back to them,” he said. “They hand over their crops and it goes through the channels to be sold to a retailer. Whatever trickles back to the farmer at the end of that, that's what they're able to pocket. And unfortunately, it's not very much.”

He said farming is becoming less and less profitable which inevitably has an impact on food security and prices.

“It’s to the point where the revenues that they get can barely pay for their expenses for that year,” he said. “It's an asset with a very limited shelf life.”

Gill said farmers should get more assistance and people ought to pay attention to how much farmers get paid since, “no farmers, no food.”

“It is one of the fundamental issues of why the farming industry is not a viable industry at this point,” he said.

“If food security is truly important to us as a nation, as a province, we need to look at the people growing that food. So we have things in place like the Agricultural Land Reserve that protects land, but we don't have anything in place that protects the farmer that tends to the land.”

Click here for a list of packing facilities.

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