Grey Skies for Ontario Apples

A veteran local apple grower is chopping down his trees and going into the insurance business.

Rob Gardner has gone from 400 acres of organic apple orchard to 20 acres this year.

Most of his employees have been laid off. He's trying to help them find placements at other orchards in the area.

The downsizing is mostly a result of the state of orchard economics, according to Gardner.

He's hired a heavy machine to rip 150 acres of 43-year old trees out of the ground this year. His father, Tony Gardner, planted those trees along Highway 26 on the West side of Meaford in 1967. Rob has been an apple grower for 37 years.

The troubling reality facing Ontario's apple growers is this: the cost of production is going up, and the price that farmers receive for their produce, has stayed the same for at least a decade.

Gardner says there's been a 35 per cent drop in price for product on the way for next year.

"It's not even worthwhile," said Gardner, who now sells commercial insurance in The Blue Mountains, Meaford and Collingwood area. "Nobody can stand that in any business."

Particularly in a risky business like farming, where half a crop can be destroyed by a late frost, by hail or, as happened last year, a tornado.

Gardner said the trees he's taken out were old and at the end of their life, but instead of replanting orchard, the land will be used for cash crops like beans and grains.

Gardner's situation isn't unique, according to Brian Gilroy, a local apple grower and chair of the Ontario Apple Grower's Association.

Acres of orchards have been disappearing since the 1990s.

According to Gilroy, there were 34,000 acres of apple orchard in Ontario in 1994.

Today there are 12,500 acres.

Much of the land that was once apple orchard is still agricultural land, mostly used for cash crops.

Grey County is home to 4,000 acres of apple orchards, more than any other county in Canada.

A lot of apples now come from Asia - in fact, most concentrate used in juices sold all over the world including Canada, is juice made from Fuji apples and exported from China.

The cost of production is up, but the price per bushel hasn't changed much over the years.

"We've had to become more efficient," said Gilroy.

There are now 75 apple growers in the Georgian Bay area including Collingwood, The Blue Mountains and Meaford - less than half of what it was 20 years ago.

Gilroy and Shane Ardiel, chair of the Georgian Bay Fruit Grower's Association, are working to promote Georgian Bay apples.

On Thursday, May 6, Gilroy and Ardiel along with Faye Clack Communications of Mississauga invited several GTA journalists to tour Ardiel's orchard and Bay Growers Cooperative. The goal was promoting Ontario apples.

"We're in trouble," said Gilroy, while walking through Ardiel's orchard.

Again it came down to economics.

The cost of production is high and getting higher. The price for product is low and staying there.

Even at Ardiel's successful orchard, there is evidence of changing economics. He's going high density, getting rid of standard trees and opting for smaller, closer trees and more per acre.

A big part of the solution, according to Gilroy, Gardner and Ardiel, is Canadians buying local produce.

The rest is economics.