Scorching temperatures cripple crops in B.C.'s Fraser Valley
Janz Berry Farm usually sells fresh-picked raspberries at a roadside stand in the summer.
This year, they won’t even open.
The family-run farm in Abbotsford, B.C., is among dozens hard-hit by the heat wave that has been suffocating the province.
“We can’t sell this kind of product to our customers,” said Ben Janz, who has lived on the farm more than 50 years.
“It’s been tough because some of these people have been with us for years and we’ve really appreciated their business. We’ve just had to say sorry, this year is a write-off," he said
“We’ve had rain and we’ve had some heat (over the years) but nothing, nothing like this. This is just crazy."
He said the heat has seriously damaged berries, leaving many white in colour after being “sun-burned." He said even the taste isn’t the same.
“A lot of these, they are just totally baked. They should have been developing more. A lot of them are still very small and they have already turned red,” he explained.
His words are echoed by other farmers, including James Bergen, who has about 150 acres in raspberries in Abbotsford.
“It is harder to pick when the sun scald gets on the berries but the quality is useless for anything but juice,” said Bergen.
“We should be picking five to six thousand pounds a day right now of fresh raspberries, and we’re lucky if we are able to pick a thousand pounds, and that’s with going through and sorting. We basically lost half of our fields that are in full production,” he explained.
Ruined raspberry crops are seen at Janz Berry Farm in Abbotsford, B.C., during a record-breaking heat wave.
“We had a good crop going into the season…I don’t think we know the true extent of the damage,” he added, calling it the worst weather-related event he’s experienced in his 25-plus years of farming.
Vegetable farmers are also facing losses.
Opinider Bhatti of the Fraser Valley Cold Crop Growers Association showed CTV News a field of brussels sprouts damaged by the sun.
“All the leaves have been burnt,” he said, even though the field has been irrigated.
He said many of his other crops, including a field of corn, will be lost.
“They might produce little corn but we won’t be able to sell it,” he said.
Bhatti expects to lose 25 to 30 per cent of his various vegetable crops but said other growers have it much worse.
“One of my growers, he lost 100 per cent, all the cauliflower, broccoli,” he said.
There is government-run insurance available to some farmers, depending on their crops, but some vegetable growers say it doesn’t cover their actual losses and can be very expensive.
Bhatti is calling for an emergency fund to be made available to farmers suffering crop losses.
Meanwhile, berry farmers are hopeful that cooler temperatures will help.
“I’m hoping and praying they’re going to start releasing from the stem and we’ll be able to salvage something,” Janz said.
Bergen said that despite a year’s worth of work and preparation wasted, it’s encouraging to see many farmers reaching out to one another through it all.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6946509.1719687583!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.jpg)
Who are the richest people in Canada? Here's how many billionaires there are
If you gathered all the wealth that billionaires currently have worldwide, you would have about US$14.2 trillion, according to Forbes Magazine. But what about in Canada alone?
'7 years of regret': Raunchy leg piece wins bad tattoo competition at Edmonton Expo Centre
Friday night was a celebration of mistakes for a small group of body art enthusiasts.
Time crunch, rules mess could plague a Liberal leadership race
Calls have intensified for Justin Trudeau to resign as head of the party he almost single-handedly pulled back from the brink after a decimating electoral defeat in 2011.
Despair in the air: For many voters, the Biden-Trump debate means a tough choice just got tougher
The sound you might have heard after the presidential debate this past week was of voters falling between a rock and a hard place.
Lightning deal Sergachev, Jeannot; Maple Leafs acquire Tanev's rights at NHL draft
General managers wheeled and dealed Saturday in Sin City.
235 flights cancelled as WestJet waits to hear from labour minister on next steps in mechanics strike
WestJet said 235 flights have been cancelled Saturday as it waits to see what the next steps are in its ongoing labour dispute with its mechanics.
A year ago, she drank battery acid to escape life under the Taliban. Today, she has a message for other Afghan girls
Holding a mirror steady in one hand, Arzo carefully applies pencil to her brows as she gets ready for an English lesson a short walk from her home on the outskirts of Pakistani megacity Karachi.
A Florida auctioneer was about to sell an 1800s pocket watch. He learned it was a stolen piece of U.S. presidential history
A pocket watch that belonged to Theodore 'Teddy' Roosevelt was returned to his New York home this week after it was stolen decades ago and later showed up at an auction, according to the FBI and the National Park Service.
U.S. and Europe warn Lebanon's Hezbollah to ease strikes on Israel and back off from wider Mideast war
U.S., European and Arab mediators are pressing to keep stepped-up cross-border attacks between Israel and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah militants from spiraling into a wider Middle East war that the world has feared for months. Iran and Israel traded threats Saturday of what Iran said would be an 'obliterating" war over Hezbollah.