“Catastrophic crop losses” predicted for BC’s wine industry

This Vine is considered dead so we have to pull it and replace it each Blue Ribbon marks a Vine that is no longer viable Leu Winery and Oliver damaged by extremely cold temperatures back in 2022 you have to imagine it as a a a flash freeze like it’s when you you put a

Piece of uh some vegetables in a freezer and then they freeze they and then the the alive tissue becomes black and there’s no way for them to come back to life with that cold snap was nothing compared to the Arctic blast that blanketed the Okanagan this winter

Freezing The Vines once again we already had a decrease of around 54% of the crop uh valleywide a new report says BC’s wine industry is anticipating catastrophic crop losses of up to 99% of the typical great production due to January’s extreme cold snap in fact we’re not expecting any crop at all so

It’s uh it’s that was the dire news we’re uh a catastrophic collapse is kind of the term that we’re using and uh uh stun disbelief I think is the best how to characterize how the industry is feeling and reacting to it the report says production this year is estimated

To be 1 to 3% to typical yields with most of that coming from the Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island but because most of the grapes are growing here within the Oak aen and it was the the heaviest hit that’s why we’re with confidence able to say uh uh it looks as

Though total loss for the crop for this coming fall and wine experts say it will have a terrible impact down the line as it takes a Vine around 3 years after planting to produce grapes and even though the exact extent of the damage won’t be known until Bud burst around

The end of April Pont says the industry needs help now is dramatic for the wine industry that we all have infrastructure we all have staff we have people to that depend on us to to leave and uh it’s we don’t take it lightly it’s very serious

And uh people need to know about it news Oliver

A new report says B.C.’s wine industry will have a catastrophic drop in production this year, with orchards possibly experiencing up to 99 per cent crop loss.

In B.C.’s Southern Interior — which includes the wine-rich Okanagan Valley, home to 86 per cent of the province’s vineyard acreage — a polar vortex in mid-January saw temperatures suddenly plunge in some areas.

As a result, the fruit industry across the Southern Interior had widespread crop damage, with orchardists telling Global News that trees and plants had no time to develop their necessary winter hardiness.

Taya Fast reports on how this cold snap will be felt for years to come.

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