Dozens of fruit growers gathered in Kelowna, British Columbia, on Tuesday morning, demanding government intervention after the cooperative that stores and packages their crops was suddenly forced to close last month.

The BC Tree Fruits cooperative, which consists of more than 230 farming families, informed its members in mid-July of its closure after 90 years of operation, citing “extremely low estimated fruit volumes, weather influences and difficult market and financial conditions”.

Last week the company filed for creditor protection.

The news came at a time when many fruit growers were struggling with catastrophic crop losses due to last year’s extreme weather, which wiped out peach, apricot and nectarine crops and severely damaged cherry orchards.

Moe Dhaliwal’s family grew fruit in British Columbia’s Okanagan for 30 years and the closure took members by surprise.

“There are still apple farmers out there with apples on their trees and we don’t have room to put them.”

Protest organizer and fruit farmer Kelly Wander from Osooyos said farmers are appealing to government at all levels to support fruit farmers during this time of need.

Wander said she and other farmers wanted to reopen the cooperative because private packing houses do not have the capacity for the amount of fruit that has already been or will be harvested.

“There is a lot of uncertainty,” she said.

WATCH HERE | Farmers demand support from the province:

Frustrated fruit growers in British Columbia urgently need support from the province

Devastating crop losses caused by extreme weather and the collapse of the BC Tree Fruits co-op last month have forced many fruit growers to look for somewhere to sell their fruit. Today, Premier David Eby was in the region to speak to farmers and offer them support. CBC’s Brady Strachan reports on the situation.

Wander said farmers did not feel their concerns were being heard by provincial authorities. Last week, however, Agriculture Minister Pam Alexis said they were.

“This has been a difficult time for farmers, including fruit growers in British Columbia. Our government has listened to them. What we are hearing is that everyone is facing different challenges, but the common denominator is that farmers need help now to improve their bottom line,” Alexis said in a statement.

Change of leadership

Amarjit Lalli, former board member of BC Tree Fruits, said that although the province has announced some support for fruit tree growers, this does not help with the underlying problem.

Lalli had previously told the Canadian Press that the board’s decision to close the company was made in the wake of a power struggle for control and member dissatisfaction with management.

He said that at an extraordinary general meeting, the cooperative’s board of directors “did not want to give up control of the organization” and therefore decided to close the organization instead.

Lawyers and representatives of the cooperative did not immediately respond to requests for comment at the time.

Lalli said he now wants the province to guarantee a loan to the cooperative and intervene to allow cooperative members to remove the current leadership of BC Tree Fruits.

He said the cooperative had “never worked efficiently.”

“We have people who are willing to work to solve the problems within the organization,” he said.

Opposition joins calls for support

On Tuesday morning, the opposition party BC United called on the provincial government to intervene to help fruit growers.

The party said it wants the province to temporarily halt the liquidation of the co-op’s assets, provide BC Tree Fruits with funds to survive this year’s harvest and audit the co-op and its management.

“This is critical to prevent a complete collapse of the industry while protecting the rights of co-op members,” MLA Ian Paton, BC United’s shadow minister for agriculture, said in a statement.

Dhaliwal fears that if the cooperative remains closed, farmers will be forced to “uproot their fruit trees” because they will not be able to compete in external, private markets.

“There will be no more local fruit,” he said.

“If we don’t do that… we let the government step in and take care of this situation… there will be an influx of U.S. products into the local markets.”