BC Tree Fruits History

Commercial production of tree fruit began in the Okanagan Valley in the 1890s. In 1893 the Kelowna Shippers’ Union began marketing and selling fruit in the mining districts of British Columbia.

During its few years of operation it made great strides to secure better railway shipping rates and attempted to solve the problem of surplus produce through cooperation. The company bought product from local farmers, paying cash at current prices, thus providing a local market. It paid growers first. The Kelowna Shipper’s Union folded in early 1900s, the lack of success with tobacco sales being a contributing factor.

The first rail car of tree fruit was shipped to the Prairie market in 1901 and two rail cars of tree fruit were shipped to Britain in 1903 Okanagan Fruit Union formed in 1908 to begin to control, centralize and standardize the packing, shipping and sales of Okanagan tree fruit crops.

In 1913 the Okanagan United Growers formed with the co-operation of nine Okanagan packing operations. This was the first non‐profit, central selling and distributing agency and it went out of business in 1923.

The Kelowna Grower’s Exchange was incorporated in 1913, at the end of the first wave of attempts at establishing fruit co-operatives in the Okanagan. Although the benefits of centralized selling had increasing appeal to growers by the beginning of World War I, local fruit co-ops and the central association, the BC Fruit Growers Association (BCFGA), were still in their infancy. Enough fruit was being produced in the 1890s that growers had saturated the local market. Outside markets had to be found and developed. However, in contrast to fruit regions of other parts of Canada, where many co-ops had been formed to compete with independent packers and shippers, the first co-ops in the Okanagan were formed not to compete with the established shippers and dealers, but because of the lack of them.

When the Kelowna Shippers Union was formed “…the co-operatives could see the disadvantages of competing against each other in the Northwest market. Marketing under a central organization was proposed and the BC Fruit Exchange was formed in 1896 to market fruit, develop markets, and purchase supplies for the local co-ops. Within a few seasons, the Exchange would amalgamate with the BCFGA. While some growers showed great enthusiasm towards a central association, the BCFGA was still small and would confront many challenges in the coming years to ensure high quality produce and stabilize the market. Orchards began to cover the Okanagan dry-belt by 1910. The valley was well on its way to becoming the “fruit garden of the world.” By 1911, there were over a million apples trees in the Okanagan. The increased number of fruit trees corresponding with increased commercialization of the industry meant new marketing challenges. The increased commercialization of the orchards by the end of the decade saw the quick integration of Okanagan fruit marketing into the complex North American system of produce distribution. Similar to an hourglass, this marketing system positioned growers on one end, and consumers on the other. In the middle were shippers, brokers, and jobbers. David Dendy, highly regarded member of the fruit industry, explains the system well:

The fruit grower consigned, or sometimes sold, his fruit to the local shipper, who was also usually the packer. The shipper put this fruit in the hands of a broker, who arranged to sell it at the best possible price to the jobber or wholesaler. The broker then remitted the returns, less his costs and commission, to the shipper, who made a similar deduction and finally paid the grower. The jobber, meanwhile, sold the fruit to the retail outlets who supplied the eventual consumer.

The 1912 crop was large. Bumper crops in BC and in the Western United States coincided, and shippers forced prices to disastrous lows. The poor returns affected all growers and resulted in widespread result for the idea of a co-operative to stabilize the market. The Kelowna Grower’s Exchange emerged from these conditions.

By 1913 there were four co-ops in the Okanagan: Okanagan Fruit Union, the Vernon Fruit Coop, the Salmon Arm Farmers Exchange, and the Kelowna Growers Exchange. Extensive irrigation projects were conducted throughout the Valley to Osoyoos, allowing even more orchards to be planted. Those orchards began to come into full bearing in the second decade of the century, and this stimulated the formation of numerous sales agencies and the construction of dozens of packinghouses.

The Laurel Packinghouse was built over the winter of 1917-18. It was built with bricks made from the clay from Knox Mountain and was a working packinghouse until the 1970s. It is the oldest and largest standing packinghouse of its kind in BC which served fruit shippers, both independent and cooperative. The fruit industry eventually changed to the point that the building was no longer suitable for the modern technology of fruit packing. As we know, today it stands as a designated heritage site and is home to the British Columbia Orchard Industry Museum.

- Apple production continued to expand. In 1920 the apple crop was over 1.3 million boxes - In 1921 the apple crop more than doubled to 2.7 million boxes
- Associated Growers of British Columbia formed in 1923 representing approximately 2700 growers and approx. 85% of the potential crop
- The Depression of the 1930s brought with it low grower returns, and in 1933 a Growers Strike coined the phrase ‘Cent A Pound Or On The Ground.’
- These grower actions spurred both the wider tree fruit industry and the government to work seriously toward central selling of the crop
- By the mid 1930s new legislation was in place to support the development of central selling agencies for Canada’s agricultural products
- In the midst of the depression in the 1930s, a more highly developed central selling organization was set up. BC Tree Fruits Limited was incorporated on July 21, 1936 with an authorized capital of $10,000.
- In 1939 the BC Fruit Marketing Board designated B.C. Tree Fruits Limited as its sole selling agency under the powers of the ‘Natural Products Marketing (BC) Act.’
- In 1940 BC Tree Fruits Limited assumed US marketing activities.
- In 1941 BC Tree Fruits Limited assumed overseas marketing
- In 1946 BC Fruit Processing Ltd. Was incorporated, later changing its name to SunRype Products Ltd. It was under the same ownership as BC Tree Fruits.

In 1957, there were 36 cooperative societies, 20 independent shippers, and 5 growershippers selling their product through B.C. Tree Fruits. In the 60s and 70s BCTF had branch offices in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Regina, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Calgary and Edmonton. They had permanent agents in South East Asia and the UK and were selling fruit worldwide.

By 1972, the number of packing houses had consolidated to 14 cooperatives and 4 independent shippers. In the 70s, BC Tree Fruits – not the packing houses – took on the task of the construction, ownership and operating of controlled atmosphere storages – a new technology that radically changed the marketing season of apples.

In 1998, this further amalgamated to four cooperative packinghouses, and in 2008, those final four merged to form the Okanagan Tree Fruit Cooperative. B.C. Tree Fruits is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Okanagan Tree Fruit Cooperative.

Today, BC Tree Fruits Ltd. sells fruit for 800 growers operating 10,000 acres of orchard that generate $130 million in revenue, contribute $900 million in economic activity and directly employ 1,500 people.

The BC leaf brand is synonymous with a quality product. The brand brings great value to the industry and this value is because of the quality of product that growers deliver to BC Tree Fruits and the effort, dedication and hard work of our committed staff. I’d especially like to thank management and staff for their contribution over the last 75 years.