Local chambers of commerce are backing the B.C. wine industry in its calls for financial assistance to the Okanagan vineyards devastated by last winter’s cold snap.
The Penticton & Wine Country and South Okanagan Chambers of Commerce are joining the wine industry in appealing to all levels of government for both financial assistance as well as making changes to current legislation to help vineyards recover.
The B.C. wine industry is worth an estimated $3.75 billion annually with approximately 90 per cent of vineyards being located in the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys.
“Given how important our wineries are to our region from an economic, agricultural and tourism perspective,” both Chambers are urging the province to temporarily modify regulations to help those wineries who were significantly affected by the cold snap.
“Crops that were destroyed will need to be replanted, and it takes up to five years before they are at full growing production,” said Katie O’Kell, Penticton Chamber Director and co-owner of Serendipity Winery.
She points to the “massive” financial impact from both the added labour to replant and nurture the new vines to maturity as well as the lost revenue in between.
But also worrisome is the fact that wineries who saw a third or more of their crops destroyed may not be able to ferment enough grapes to keep their wine manufacturing license while waiting for their crops to grow back,” O’Kell noted.
Current provincial regulations mandate that wineries produce 4,500 litres of wine each year and use at least 25 per cent of the grapes from their own acreage.
“The majority of wineries in the South Okanagan are classified as land based, meaning that on top of using 25 per cent of grapes from your own vineyard, you must supplement the rest of your order with other B.C.-grown grapes,” said Chamber President Nicole Clark.
“Before this cold snap, B.C. grapes were already 10 times more expensive than grapes produced in places like Chile. Now with 2023’s supply significantly impacted; we are seeing that cost increase up to 15 times higher than out-of-country grapes,” Clark added.
According to Michael Magnusson, Penticton Chamber’s executive director, the chambers would like to see a reduction of the minimum production requirement to zero litres over the next three to five years for all of those wineries who are now in the process of regrowing a third or more of their crops.
They are also calling for a suspension of the requirement for affected wineries to use 25 per cent of their own grapes in production, so long as their production level does not exceed previous years.
Magnusson described the changes as brining “immediate peace of mind” to the industry. “It is going to be hard enough for these wineries to bounce back, and the last thing they should have to worry about is the threat of losing their license because they can’t temporarily meet minimum thresholds, he said.
The Chambers are also urging the federal government to make available no-to-low interest loans, much like the CEBA loan program, to help wineries finance the costs of replanting and operate with decreased revenues during these difficult times.
“Some of our wineries have been hurt to the point where 2023 will be a complete loss for them,” reports Denise Blashko of the South Okanagan Chamber of Commerce.
“They’re at risk of losing their license based on current legislation, and they won’t have the revenues to cover their costs during the years it will take them to regrow their crops.”
In addition to financial assistance, the chambers are asking the feds to expand the AgriRecovery program so that it supports wineries in addition to grape growers. They are also calling for the excise tax to be repealed “or at the very least, suspend the excise tax at a time when vineyards are being destroyed and winemakers forced to rapidly adapt to climate change.”
MLA Roly Russell’s office says that he and Pam Alexis, Minister of Agriculture, recently visited several wineries in the South Okanagan and will be holding a series of meetings in August with local wineries as well as B.C.’s Solicitor General, Mike Farnworth, and the Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism, MLA Brittny Anderson.
