by BETTER FARMING STAFF
Ontario’s apple and grape cultivated acreages have each dropped more than 13 per cent over the past year, a Statistics Canada report released today says.
StatsCan’s 2010 spring fruit and vegetable survey shows that the number of cultivated apple acres in the province dropped to 16,100 this year from 18,635 in 2009. Cultivated acreage for table and wine grapes fell to 17,030 from 19,635 in the same time period.
Kelly Ciceran, manager for Ontario Apple Growers, attributed most of the drop in apple acreage to the Canada-Ontario orchards and vineyards transition program. The $24 million program, introduced in 2008 and ending this year, offers apple, grape and tender fruit growers up to $1,613 per acre to help remove orchard and vineyard stock.
Ciceran says there may be even more drops in apple acreage next year, explaining that growers have until the fall to remove their stock.
Adrian Huisman, secretary-manager of the Ontario Tender Fruit Producers’ Marketing Board estimates that about 5,000 apple acres have been removed over the life of the program and about 3,000 have been replanted.
“In a way it’s a positive thing,” Huisman says, noting the older or unmarketable varieties are being replaced with newer varieties resulting in fewer but more productive apple acres.
Both Huisman and Ciceran note the program does not offer replanting assistance to growers. They say it is available in other provinces. Huisman says the industry asked the provincial government for assistance but has not received a response.
A spokesperson for the Ontario Grape Growers could not be immediately reached.
Statistics indicate there was a smaller drop in cultivated peach acreages to 6,110 in 2010 from 6,825 in 2009.
Cultivated strawberry acreage shrank by 330 acres this year compared to 2009. Kevin Schooley, executive director of the Ontario Berry Growers Association says there has been a shortage of plant stock this year.
Blueberries were one of the few fruits that boosted its acreage, jumping to 605 cultivated acres from 575 in Ontario in 2009.
That increase is tiny compared to Quebec where cultivated blueberry acreage jumped to 69,475 this year from 67,154 in 2009. Schooley says production volume in the country’s primary blueberry growing regions of Eastern Canada and British Columbia, as well as in Michigan, will build over the next five years as the added plantings mature.
But a higher than normal amount of product in storage has pushed down prices in supermarkets. The majority of the crop in Ontario is sold at the farm or farmers markets so growers in the province “can manage their pricing a little bit better,” he says.
According to the StatsCan report, apples, blueberries and grapes accounted for 82.2 per cent of Canada’s expected fruit planted area in 2010.
The report also indicates that growers expect to plant about 250,000 acres of vegetables this year and harvest 249,000 acres. The harvesting area has increased nearly five per cent from 2009; 61 per cent of the 2010 crop is expected to go to fresh markets with the rest to processing.
About 84 per cent of the anticipated harvested vegetable area is located in Ontario and Quebec. BF
