Valley crop comes in

BY SARA KEDDY

editor@berwickregister.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

A crispy fall morning, a sunny day and no rain is just what apple growers are looking for.

“Those mornings last week? Just enough to chill everything, make the tree think it better colour up the apples - they’re exceptional,” says Scotian Gold’s Dave Parrish.

“The size looks good: we’ve had ample rain, no big diseases or pests. I think it’s going to be a good crop.”

Parrish looks after outside sales of the co-op’s grower members; about 50 farmers that account for 35 or 40 per cent of the Nova Scotian apple industry - about 50,000 bins a year.

Nova Scotia Fruit Growers president Gordon Lemmon of Masons, with 400 acres of orchard, says they aren’t expecting a bumper crop, but there’s nothing wrong with a “good, average crop” either.

“We’re two to five days ahead of the normal harvest. Spring was a little earlier, we had heat then and all summer through the nights, too. There was no real hail damage like last year. Pretty well everything is good.”

The demand for pie apples is steady, with growers moving all the Spies they have – and the price is up.

Strong, loyal clientele

“It’s a strong market right now for fresh fruit, especially because of all the poor crops in other areas of North America: hail in B.C., rain in Ontario. They’ll move what they have and then the demand will warm up here in another couple of months.”

Growers need that, Lemmon says, to cover the rising costs of fuel, fertilizers and orchard sprays.

“We’ll hold our breath through the fall so no one panics,” Parrish says, referring to the potential for retail buyers to bring in offshore produce at prices that could knock off the local price.

“We have a pretty loyal clientele of buyers and we try and work with these guys. We have a job to produce quality at a good price and they have a job to have what customers want.”

Right now, that’s the Honey Crisp. Scotian Gold shipped all its supply by January last year to the U.S. market and Parrish had hoped for a doubling in the local crop this season.

“We’re not there yet, and I wish there was more.”

Charles Embree at the Kentville research station’s apple department says predictions a few years ago the Honey Crisp would be a short-lived variety are “dead wrong. You sell one, you sell two more. It’s a variety that sells itself.”

As it takes 10 to 15 years to breed, virus test and grow seedlings of new varieties to crop-bearing size, Embree says Honey Crisp growers are growing in number themselves.

“Right now we’re on tenterhooks because they have not really started that harvest yet.”

Lemmon says harvest labour is the biggest issue likely facing orchardists. Many have brought in offshore, Newfoundland and Quebec pickers, but housing those workers becomes an issue. Local labour is harder to keep.

With good news in recent years and some challenges, Lemmon says “fruit growers have taken it upon themselves to plan ahead, develop our industry and not just react.”