The B.C. Okanagan is seeing an interesting development in horticulture which bears a resemblance to what occurred about 100 years ago in the same area. Anyone travelling to the area over the past 30 years can’t help but notice dozens of new vineyards and wineries. That compares to a mere handful of operations 30 years ago. It causes one to ponder what instigated this gold rush into wine facilities and grape growing.
It’s not cheap to establish a vineyard. It’s highly intensive horticulture that takes years to mature. It’s also not without risk, the biggest being weather. The Okanagan area tends to be at the northern frontier of wine grape growing, although new varieties and cultivation technology are improving the odds. One presumes that the capital investment in even a modest operation could be well into the million-dollar-plus range. Land costs alone are astronomical in the area and a number of acres are needed to establish a viable operation.
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Upon noting the history of the area one finds that about 100 years ago there was a similar horticultural gold rush. It seems back then the Okanagan-Kootenay area was deemed to be ideal for apple orchards. Land development companies bought up tracts of land and promoted the orchard idea to potential settlers primarily in the U.K. Promotion schemes painted idyllic pictures of planting a few acres of apples and then watching money grow on trees. It seems a lot of folks took the bait and within a 20-year period almost every valley and benchland in the area that could grow apples was populated by innocent new orchardists.
Fruit-packing companies sprung up everywhere to process the fruit. Railways and lake paddlewheelers shipped the fruit bounty of the remote area to markets across the country and even overseas.
But alas, like so many schemes the discipline of supply and demand took its toll and prices collapsed. For the Okanagan, that has been the bane of growers for the past 80 years. And inevitably it’s seen a steady decline in orchard acreage over those years.
The decline continued until the arrival of the vineyard and cottage winery boom. Apple orchards were torn up not just for vineyards but also residential development — it seems the golden age for apple orchard owners had finally arrived. But will the wild expansion in vineyards also reach its breaking point just like it did with apples? It has that feel to it, and agriculture has that nasty habit of repeating itself.
One also notes that there is an even larger explosion of vineyards and wineries being established in the U.S. — even in Idaho and Montana! One can buy good-quality wine in American stores for $6 a bottle. I suspect there is a message in that, if history is to be heeded. One wishes those who are making substantial investments in Okanagan vineyards well, but the future looks ominous. But this being B.C. perhaps there is another future for this area if the vineyard boom collapses — maybe in 10 years there will be a boom in creating legal marijuana plantations. And so the cycle continues.
