In February 2018, the $5-million Tree Fruit Competitiveness Fund was announced.

• The fund is open to tree fruit growers, producers and processors, to support three key areas of priority:
  • Research: cultivar, disease and pest research
  • Marketing: export market opportunities and market development research
  • Infrastructure: sector-based infrastructure modernization, such as new equipment
• In 2018, the Province provided an additional $300,000 in funding for its replanting program, to meet the demand from tree fruit growers. As of July 2018, the tree fruit sector has access to $5.5 million of funding to support replanting, through 2021.
• B.C.’s tree fruit industry is composed of approximately 800 growers who manage 6,474 hectares (16,000 acres) of tree fruit in crops in the Okanagan, Similkameen and Creston valleys. In 2016, those growers produced nearly 129,000 tonnes of fruit, worth more than $116 million.
• The Ministry of Agriculture’s Grow BC supports the fruit and nut growers, and processors, to expand local food production, and to help young farmers access land. Grow BC offers targeted programs to ensure the people who are passionate about working in agriculture have opportunities to work in the sector.

Revitalizing B.C.’s hazelnut orchards

• In July 2018, the Ministry of Agriculture announced it is providing the BC Hazelnut Growers Association (BCHGA) with $300,000 in funding over the next three years.
• The funding will allow growers to replace hundreds of hectares of dead and diseased orchards with eastern filbert blight-resistant varieties, and will further expand hazelnut-growing areas in B.C. with new plantings.