Farmers say the heavy rainfall across the Lower Mainland this month has resulted in one of the worst crop seasons in recent memory.
Standing in his corn field on a sunny Saturday, grower Opinder Bhatti should be harvesting his crops – but puddles of water are getting in the way.
"It's all sitting in the water," he said. "Our tractor can't go through so it's a big disaster."
And the problems aren't confined to corn fields. Bhatti, who is also one of the biggest broccoli suppliers in the region, says a combination of sun and sitting water have spoiled his broccoli as well.
He expects 75 per cent of his crop will be lost.
"During this period, we used to ship about 20 tonnes of broccoli a day to Lucerne Foods and we are not shipping anything," he said.
Potato producer Heppell's has seen its potatoes soak up water and expand, as grower Pete Schouten demonstrated for CTV News. "You can see it's expanded the skin and now it's just going rotten," he said.
Abbotsford has seen about 163 milimeteres of rain so far this month, more than double the normal rainfall for all of September – and Schouten says that means "disaster-type" losses are on the horizon.
It likely spells bad news for growers and consumers alike.
"The price of local potatoes will definitely be higher, just because there's not going to be that many out there," Schouten said.
Bhatti says the same is true of broccoli and corn. It's been a difficult year for many growers – ironically, some have been tallying losses since July when a lack of rainfall withered early crops.
"It's hard to win the game this year," Bhatti said.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Michele Brunoro
