Drought, excessive prices deliver U.S. berry giants to Canada’s maple syrup land By Reuters

By Allison Lampert and Julie Gordon

MONTREAL/OTTAWA (Reuters) – A swath of Canada higher identified for maple syrup is being examined to mass produce berries usually grown in hotter locales, making it the surprising beneficiary of maximum climate, native demand and rising prices in conventional rising areas like California.

Driscoll’s and grower-owned Naturipe Farms LLC, two of North America’s largest fruit sellers, are each testing industrial manufacturing of berries in Ontario and Quebec, executives stated.

The efforts goal to see if Canada’s most populous provinces could be cost-effective areas for larger-scale manufacturing of blackberries, raspberries and strawberries regardless of a colder local weather that usually limits berries to a brief summer season season.

The long-term initiative is being pushed by robust demand for native berries – it’s cheaper to develop and ship inside Canada than to promote imported berries – and by water shortages and drought circumstances in California and past.

“We now have most likely gone to many of the apparent locations on the earth. Now we’re shifting into tougher territories,” stated Soren Bjorn, president of Driscoll’s of the Americas, which sources most of its berries from Mexico and the US.

Excessive gas prices are additionally a purpose “to develop merchandise nearer to the place the top sport is,” or close to shoppers, stated Brian Bocock, vp of gross sales and product administration at Naturipe Farms, which is testing blueberry and raspberry manufacturing in Quebec and Ontario.

Nobody in conventional rising areas like California is panicking from the efforts to develop berries on a bigger scale in Canada. The Canadian trials, for one, are nonetheless of their early levels, making it unclear whether or not Canada might change into a extra important participant within the berry market within the coming years.

Even with an extended rising season and new varieties, it could be exhausting for Canada to compete with the likes of main berry-producing areas like California on quantity.

“Right here the strawberry season, and raspberries equally – they’re set as much as be harvested day after day after day, week after week after week,” stated Daniel Sumner, director of the College of California Agricultural Points Middle, including the larger risk for the state is Mexico with its cheaper labor.

As a substitute, the berry trials spotlight the long-term challenges growers face as local weather change reshapes world agriculture, affecting every thing from grains to wine. Olive oil manufacturing in Italy, for instance, was as soon as the protect of scorching and arid areas however is now produced in northern areas like Val d’Aosta extra well-known for its ski resorts.

“Local weather change is disrupting agriculture and impacting their prime strains and backside strains,” Himanshu Gupta, CEO of Local weather AI, which works with Driscoll’s and fashions the impression and threat posed by excessive climate on enterprise metrics.

“Adaptation goes to drive winners. Those who can adapt sooner are those who’re going to finish up successful the market.”

SWEET NORTH

Rising strawberries, raspberries and blackberries in central Canada shouldn’t be new, although the size and rising season focused by Driscoll’s and Naturipe are. As a substitute, the nation is extra well-known for blueberries, of which it’s the world’s second-largest producer behind the US, thanks primarily to manufacturing in British Columbia’s temperate Fraser Valley.

Local weather change stands to have an effect on how blueberries are grown as nicely – growers in Fraser Valley at the moment are eyeing lands additional north, some so far as town of Prince George that’s on the identical parallel as cities like Dublin and Hamburg, Germany.

Pria Uppal, director of gross sales at Fraser Valley Packers Inc, a big blueberry processor and packer, stated some skilled growers are “making ready forward of time” and seeking to purchase land in northern British Columbia.

COMMERCIAL SCALE

Privately-held Driscoll’s, which has annual revenues of greater than $5 billion, is equally making ready for the long run by diversifying its berry provide sources.

“We’re going by means of all our vital areas attempting to determine what’s more likely to occur 25 or 50 years from now and what are the implications of that,” Bjorn stated.

At Masse Nursery southeast of Montreal, momentary employees from South America decide raspberries and blackberries to be offered underneath the Driscoll’s model – considered one of a handful of web sites in Quebec and Ontario being examined for bigger manufacturing.

The nursery began rising berries for Driscoll’s final 12 months on a trial foundation and expects to provide 80 to 100 tons of fruit from late June to September.

Excessive plastic tunnels defend the berries from rainfall and generate warmth to increase the rising season by a number of weeks, stated Sebastien Dugre, a co-owner with partner Justine Masse.

“Quebec shouldn’t be a standard place to develop blackberries and raspberries in comparison with different areas on the earth,” Dugre stated.

“However I do really feel with the infrastructure that is out there now we are able to provide you with a extra regular technique to produce on a industrial scale good-tasting raspberries for an extended season.”

As prices in conventional rising hubs rise as a result of unstable climate, the disparity with locations like Quebec and Ontario lower and make native manufacturing extra viable, Bjorn stated.

In California, for instance, the Public Coverage Institute of California estimates $1.1 billion in income losses and elevated pumping prices as a result of drought.

And as growers in California spend extra to guard their crops, locations like Canada change into extra engaging.

“Swiftly, Quebec isn’t so deprived from a price standpoint,” stated Bjorn.