Peach production has returned to British Columbia's Okanagan Valley in 2025 after the region saw heavy crop losses in 2024 due to a deep freeze in January of that year. Weather conditions have been more favourable this season.
"We've done some maintenance on the trees last year, when we had the opportunity to. So, we are expecting, maybe, our yield to be about two-thirds of what our greatest year was, but we're just thrilled to have peaches," said Lindsey Crosby, co-owner of Crosby Organics in East Kelowna.
Consumer demand has been high. "Our email list has grown quite a bit in the last couple of years, so we have a lot of people to feed. We are just trying to space out the orders and trying to manage it all to make sure that we get back to everyone promptly," Crosby said.
Canadian chef Nicole Gomes, a returning customer, has already purchased fruit this season. "She already had some of our peaches maybe two weeks ago, now, when we first started picking, which was two Mondays ago. And then she's coming this Friday for another box of peaches," Crosby said. Gomes previously featured the orchard on social media.
Like other orchard operators in the region, Crosby has diversified production. "Last year, we started selling and certifying our tomatoes. So, we have a tomato production now that we are excited to offer to our customers as well, which has been going great," she said.
Plans are in place to replant peach trees damaged in the 2024 freeze and to replace varieties less suited to extreme cold. For now, the focus remains on the current crop.
A 2024 market report for the BC Fruit Growers' Association valued the BC peach market at C$13.6 million (US$10 million), with nearly all production consumed domestically.
Source: Castanet
