‘Significant loss’: Manitoba strawberry farm loses majority of crop due to severe weather

Damaged strawberries on Boonstra Farms (Alex Karpa/CTV News)

STONEWALL, MAN. – Danielle Boonstra is trying to salvage what she can after heavy rain, hail and flooding devastated 60 per cent of her 28-acre strawberry field.

Her farm, Boonstra Farms, is over 30 kilometres north of Winnipeg, near Stonewall, Man.

“We had quite a bit of hail at the beginning of the season,” she said. “What happens is the hail punctures the berries which rots them and bruises them.”

Back at the beginning of June, over 250 millimetres of rain fell in Stonewall and the surrounding area in a matter of hours, completely flooding basements, roads, and fields.

Boonstra says they had 29 centimetres of rain during that downfall, which decimated her fields.

“We’ve never seen rain like this,” she said. “We seem to just keep getting inches and inches every other couple of days.”

The severe weather has been a big blow for her strawberry business, which typically just has a three-week picking season.

With majority of her fields in shambles, Boonstra does not know what the financial impact looks like but says it will be significant.

“We have missed the first picking from this field,” she said. “We probably won’t even be able to come back and pick through all this field, so that’s a significant loss. This is a total of 12 acres, so 12 acres of strawberries is a lot of loss.”

To make matters worse, Boonstra says her farm planted 70,000 strawberry plants which are being grown for next year’s crop. However, after the rain and hail, Boonstra is unsure how much of the crop will be affected.

“We won’t know if those ones will survive until the beginning of next year’s season because we planted this year, for next year,” she said.

“We’re hoping that those survive.”

“This is our livelihood for three weeks,” she said. “So, we depend on the sun. We depend on cooler temperatures to actually grow the strawberries.”

Strawberry prices rising across Canada

Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab found that overall, strawberries have become more expensive over the last month, with prices rising in every region in Canada.

The national average price was $5.46 in May, which jumped almost five per cent to $5.73 in June.

Ontario experienced the largest month-over-month increase in June, up $0.41 to $5.83. Manitoba also saw an increase of $0.33 to $5.90.

“Things aren’t necessarily easy for strawberry lovers,” said Sylvain Charlebois, who is the director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University.

“We’re actually not only seeing higher prices, but the season has actually been delayed. Typically, after the first week of July, you’re starting to see, smaller strawberries, fewer strawberries, but now we’re basically in the middle of the season just because of the inclement weather in central Canada.”

In terms of where prices could go throughout the summer, Charlebois says it’s hard to predict as the weather has become unpredictable.

“Depending on where you are in the country, it’ll be very wet and cool. In other parts, it’ll be very dry and hot. So, depending on different cycles, El Nino years are incredibly difficult to forecast unfortunately.”

Fields, roads still flooded in Manitoba

Southwestern Manitoba has been subject to record amounts of precipitation, bringing major flooding to some areas.

Several communities, including Brandon, Man. the province’s second-largest city, have declared states of emergency due to rising waters.

Further north of Brandon, the town of Swan River continues its cleanup efforts after heavy rains flooded basements and forced some residents to evacuate.

A team from the Canadian Armed Forces arrived in the region over the weekend.

Several inches of water also remain on farmer’s fields in the province’s Interlake region.

The provincial opposition Manitoba Progressive Conservatives say that is all due in part to poor drainage systems.

“What we’re seeing here is years and years of neglect to drainage systems and infrastructure maintenance that needs to be done that could alleviate a lot of these issues,” said Lakeside PC MLA Trevor King.

“The renewed flooding and devastation we are seeing in the Parkland region, along with the continued issues here in the Interlake, are very trying for Manitobans to say the least,” he said.

The PCs are renewing calls to Premier Wab Kinew and the NDP government to provide more supports for agricultural producers impacted by the flooding, and the damage it has caused.

“Farm families, municipalities, and rural residents are dealing with serious losses, and so far, the NDP government has failed to produce any substantive relief or support,” King said.