Snow had minimal impact on apple harvest: B.C. Fruit Growers

The recent snow has not created major issues for Okanagan apple production.

That’s according to B.C. Fruit Growers’ Association general manager Glenn Lucas who said not many apples should still have been on trees when the snow hit.

“Our biggest apple varieties are Gala and Ambrosia and they were either almost done, or all done, harvesting so not too much impact there,” Lucas told Vernon Matters.

“For some late varieties, like Pink Lady or Fuji, there could be some impact there, but we don’t grow large volumes of those.”

Lucas noted a particular grower may choose to have several acres of one of those late varieties, but said 90 per cent of the apples grown in the North Okanagan should have already been harvested earlier this year.

“There’s a few late season varieties that might have been impacted somewhat, but people were really hustling at the end to try and get those late season varieties off as well,” he noted, adding any fruit lost due to the snow would make up less than one per cent of the total annual production from the region.