Canada: Fears over raspberry industry

Plummeting market prices for raspberries have some local farmers fearing the collapse of the industry.

Raspberry production costs are in the neighbourhood of 75 cents a pound, according to Ministry of Agriculture and Lands berry industry specialist Mark Sweeney.

However, in 2006, the pay-out to the grower was in the low 40 cents range. In 2005, it was in the low 60 cents range. “That’s well below our costs of production,” said Sukh Kahlon, an Abbotsford berry farmer.

Kahlon, who has diversified and also grows blueberries, said one of the biggest challenges facing Canadian raspberry producers is competition in the global marketplace.

“Our competition in Chile and Serbia can produce products much cheaper than we can and, at the end of the day, the consumer decides to buy the product from where it’s cheapest,” said Kahlon.

Sweeney said the worries of farmers like Kahlon are understandable. “It’s a legitimate concern,” he told the Abbotsford News.

For years, Canada has held its own in the international raspberry market but 2006 was “a very bad year for the raspberry market and, so far, 2007 doesn’t look encouraging,” said Sweeney.

“We are historically a very efficient production area. We can produce some of the best yields in the world,” he said.

But the raspberry market has changed and Canada now finds itself competing against countries like Chile and Serbia, who are producing much more than Canada.

Raspberry Development Council executive director Mike Wallis said Serbia is producing around 160 million pounds of raspberries a year whereas Canada produces between 20 million to 24 million pounds a year.

With the right climate and soil, cheap land and labour, Sweeney said Chile “can put a product on the market much cheaper than Canada can.”

But the problem for the raspberry industry is that consumption is not increasing, which is the opposite situation in the blueberry industry where prices are higher.

With the raspberry industry, the demand is flat and a growing supply puts a downward pressure on prices, Sweeney explained.

While he pointed out that it may not be unusual to have prices below cost for a year or two, Sweeney said that if that continues over time then it does not make economic sense to carry on. He questioned if is it part of a cycle or is it part of a longer term trend because of places like Chile and, said if so, “we’re in trouble.”

And that is what worries Kahlon.

“If we look at the strawberry industry, it used to be pretty big in the Fraser Valley. It has disappeared because we could not compete with California,” he said. Kahlon fears the raspberry industry is heading the same way.

“If you drive on Huntingdon Road, which is the bastion of raspberries in Abbotsford, you’ll see patches of sawdust. That’s blueberries and there’s no guarantee that market will last for long.”

Kahlon said while he and others of his generation are used to long days of hard work, he does not want his children to pursue the same lifestyle.

“It might look nice from the road, but it’s a very difficult life. I don’t want my children to be in this industry because we would be short changing them,” he said.

A living can be made, said Kahlon, “but if you put the same effort into something else you would do much better, let’s put it that way.”

Abbotsford berry farmer Gurmit Brar echoed what Kahlon said. “We are more or less on the borderline of exit,” Brar said.

The 56-year-old, who farms 36 acres of raspberries, hopes his children will find good jobs. “I don’t want them to pursue this lifestyle. It’s every day, seven days a week.” But Brar is like many farmers, where farming is more than a piece of land.

“If I sell my farm, you’re selling everything,” he said. “I sell my home, I sell my job, I sell my business, I sell my pension. All four things go when I sell this property,” he said.

But looking to the future, Sweeney said the Ministry is working with the industry on a number of initiatives.

“We can’t control the international market but, as an industry, some of the things we can do is look at ways to improve cost efficiency,” said Sweeny. That means looking at issues such as labour savings methods and ways to improve yields, which is something the Raspberry Development Council (RDC) is also focusing on.

The RDC is also working on another initiative in an effort to increase raspberry consumption in Canada and at a worldwide level.

Executive director Mike Wallis explained that through its links with the Washington Red Raspberry Commission and the International Raspberry Association, a two-day round table research discussion is scheduled for April in Los Angeles.

Wallis explained that the goal is to “identify task research and to chart a course for future research and to develop a good credible health story to support market development and promotion.”

Looking to what Wallis called the blueberry and cranberry model, where the health benefits of those fruits are internationally touted, he said the idea is to do the same for raspberries and “develop a health story – what’s good about raspberries. We haven’t been telling that story.”

In the meantime, Kahlon hopes that the public will show their support for the raspberry industry and encourages the consumer “to buy Canadian produced produce so that our farming industry could survive and keep on going.”

Source: abbynews.com