Ontario Tender Fruit Growers brings apricots into the fold

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

by SUSAN MANN

Apricots are in the homestretch of a process that began earlier this year to add the crop to the Ontario tender fruit marketing plan.

The Ontario Tender Fruit Growers marketing board submitted a proposal in the spring to the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission to add apricots to the plan. The proposal is currently listed on the Ontario government Regulatory Registry for comments.

It’s available at: Addition of Apricots to #4A2C63. Comments are due by Oct. 10.

Ontario Tender Fruit Growers chair Phil Tregunno says newer, better varieties have led to increased apricot plantings by growers. There has also been retailer demand for the fruit.

Marketing the crop has been fairly disorganized. “If we want to get a little more organized and sell to bigger retailers, we need to be able to access funds to promote it and we need to be able to set prices,” he says.

There are 33 growers and 52 acres of apricots across Ontario, says manager Sarah Marshall of Ontario Tender Fruit Growers. She notes there might be additional acres grown by farmers selling directly to consumers “that are outside our mandate.”  

In June, Farm Products, at the request of the Tender Fruit Growers, held a producer expression of opinion vote to gauge apricot growers’ support for adding the crop to the plan. Of the farmers casting ballots, 84 per cent voted in favour of the proposal representing 94 per cent of the apricot production of the growers who voted, according to the proposal on the regulatory registry.

The commission’s minimum threshold for a successful vote was “easily met,” the proposal says.

Tregunno, who grows apricots on his 700-acre fruit farm along the Niagara River, says he’s in favour of the crop being added to the marketing plan. “Anything that you can organize and set prices for and be able to do more promotion, it’s going to put dollars into growers’ pockets.”

In July, Farm Products agreed in principle to support the addition of apricots to the Tender Fruit Growers marketing plan and regulations and to recommend the addition to the provincial agriculture minister and “subsequently cabinet,” the proposal says.

Commission chair Geri Kamenz couldn’t be reached for comment.

The main regulatory authorities of the Tender Fruit Growers marketing board are: setting minimum prices paid to producers, promotion and market development, research, licensing marketers and government advocacy. The board does this work for fresh market and processing peaches, pears, nectarines, plums and for processing sweet and sour cherries.

The board also has the authority to collect licence fees from producers to fund its activities. Farmers selling fruit directly to consumers are exempt from paying the licence fees. The fee varies with each fruit depending on the cost of Tender Fruit Growers’ marketing activities for each fruit, the proposal says.

Tregunno says the licence fee for apricots hasn’t been set yet. BF