WATCH ABOVE: Last year the apple industry was dealt a huge blow with an outbreak of fire blight, but as Global’s Natasha Pace reports, this year things are looking up.
KENTVILLE, N.S. — Apples are one of the province’s most valuable resources, and after a rough season last year, the apple industry is bouncing back.
“Since the spring, when things go going, it just never stopped. We were quite surprised,” said Stephen VanMeekeren, Wink Apples.
“We had a late spring with a lot of snow, and that was a problem getting the trees pruned, cause we were in with snowshoes, when normally you’re not in with snowshoes and that slowed things down,” said Andy Parker, President, Nova Scotia Fruit Growers Association.
Last year, 90% of apple orchards in Nova Scotia were hit by fire blight following Hurricane Arthur. It forced farmers to remove thousands of trees in an effort to get rid of the disease.
This year, apple growers say things are looking up and they haven’t had many problems with their crops.
“We expected to maybe have a bit of a battle on our hands this year again with fire blight, but I’m quite surprised, I think we cleaned it up quite well,” said VanMeekeren.
“We didn’t have the trauma that we had last year with Hurricane Arthur. We seem to have got through the year quite nicely. There is fire blight in the trees, but it’s just another thing that we have to manage over the years, many years,” added Parker.
Although not an issue this year, fire blight has left fewer apple trees in the province, meaning the overall volume of apples this season will be down from previous years.
“We do have some gaps in the farm,” VanMeekeren tells Global News. “We do have some fields that we would have been harvesting a good crop off of this year, and they’re gone, so overall yield will be done.”
Farmers will start to harvest their apples in a few weeks.
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