Time for strawberries
Published Thursday July 2nd, 2009
Looking for local berries? | Local strawberry producers are frustrated, pointing to lack of retail, government support
The sweet taste of strawberries sold in large retail grocery stores is leaving a sour taste in the mouths of Fredericton area strawberry growers.
Raymond Young is one of them. After more than 20 years in business, this 57-year-old says he's discouraged.
"What's really killing us is the big stores are bringing strawberries in from Nova Scotia for nothing; way below our price of cost. Nova Scotia is in their second or third week of strawberries. We're just starting. What they're doing is putting their cheap berries in here when we should be getting a reasonable price and it's killing us."
There used to be 15 farms on the road in Jemseg where Young lives. Now he is the only farmer still in business in the area.
The lower end of Grand Lake was once known for its strawberry production and today there are only three strawberry growers.
Young is passionate about his farm and says he's remained in business as long as he has for the love of it, not because he has gotten wealthy from the fruits of his labour.
He expects within the next few years he will likely be forced into retirement, shutting down his strawberry fields and beef farm for good.
"Unless the government does something to encourage people to keep farming here, we're going to be in trouble. If anything happened to the border, we'd be the same as a Third World nation. We've got no food here in Canada. It makes me ugly when I hear Mr. Graham saying New Brunswick is going to be self-sufficient within so many years. We never will be (self-sufficient) (with) food here."
Eric Smith, the produce manager at the Fredericton Direct Charge Co-Op, says he understands why produce growers in this province are going out of business.
"There are a lot of people who have gone out of business because they couldn't afford to compete because everybody expects those berries cheap."
Smith used to grow strawberries on 10 acres at his family's farm near Oromocto, from 1976 to 1992. In the first four years his strawberry business was entirely U-pick. From 1985 to 1992, he sold the fruit to local stores.
"I just got out of it because there was just no money in growing berries," says Smith.
Presently strawberries are selling for about $4 per quart and, Smith says, he expects as more berries become available that price will drop to about $3 per quart.
But with increases in the cost of producing strawberries, many strawberry growers are either getting out of the business altogether or have switched to U-pick operations rather than selling their fruit to stores.
Smith says there are only two Fredericton area strawberry growers that supply these berries to his store. Other growers are U-pick operations.
According to the Canadian Food Inspection Act, locally grown food is within 60 kilometres of grocery stores. If it is brought into stores from any further away, it shouldn't be called local by food retailers, Young says.
If you want local strawberries grown in the St. John River Valley, Smith says always ask your grocery store for the name and the location of the grower.
Many retailers, he says, claim to be selling local berries but in actuality the fruit comes from Nova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario.
While standing in her strawberry fields in Temperance Vale, Barb Clark takes a break from weeding to talk about this season's crop and the difficulties local growers are facing.
Clark took over this business from her father 30 years ago.
She supplies to small, privately owned stores, the Co-Op and also operates a U-pick. Clark agrees the price of strawberries produced in this area should remain high this year because all of the growers' costs have gone up. Increased costs in fertilizer, fuel and labour drives up the cost of berries and this is making it difficult for growers to make a living from their crops, she says.
Clark has seen a significant change in the business over the past three decades. Once she had no trouble finding pickers to harvest her crop; now she struggles to find people who are willing to do the work.
"My dad grew 99 acres of berries at one stage and he had no problem getting those all picked and now we have less than four-and-a-half acres and I know we aren't going to get them all picked this year.
"People don't want to pick. The pickers we have now are mostly retired people or people who have another job and work night shift and pick here during the day."
Sue Warrington's kitchen is filled with the aroma of cooked strawberry jam. She is preparing it for her family, which includes her husband Keith Warrington and their five children. She is also using the strawberries for preserves they make and sell through their home-based business, House of Tudor.
When it's possible to acquire fresh, local strawberries, Warrington says, they pick and buy as much of the fruit as they can because the best jam is made from fresh, rather than frozen, fruit.
Often the family will go to a local U-pick to harvest the crop they will need for their own use as well as for their business.
It's important to this mother that her children know where their food comes from. So despite their busy schedule, the family will spend a day at a local U-pick.
"The taste of the local berries is far superiour to anything else that's out there."
Recently the Warringtons purchased a farm that needs a lot of time and attention, so this year, Warrington says, they will purchase most of the berries they will use for home and business.
Whenever possible, they always buy from local growers. And when the price of that fruit goes up, their profits go down.
"We haven't put our prices up since we started two years ago. We try not to put the price up but there's only so long that you can continue to do so."
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