‘Perfect storm’: B.C. fruit farmers warn of massive crop loss after deep freeze

A warmer-than-normal winter followed by an extreme blast of arctic air in January has wiped out entire crops of popular fruit, including peaches, plums, cherries and nectarines.

One of the highlights of summer in British Columbia will likely be in short supply this year, as farmers in the province’s interior grapple with the sour fruits of extreme weather.

Farmers say a warmer-than-normal winter followed by an extreme blast of arctic air in January has wiped out entire crops of popular fruit, including peaches, plums, cherries and nectarines.

“It was more or less what you would call a perfect storm,” explained Creston orchardist Frank Wloka.

Fruit trees began budding early due to the unseasonably warm winter weather, he said. The sudden plunge to temperatures in the range of -27 C then killed off those buds — meaning no fruit this spring.

Wloka said area farmers had an expert consultant come in to assess damage last week, and the results were grim.

“The damage is unbelievably extensive,” he said.

“Out of about eight or 10 different locations in the valley, we saw every one of those samples showed 100 per cent bud kill.”

Peter Simonsen, president of the B.C. Fruit Growers’ Association, said many farmers across the interior are in the same boat as Wloka.