Scorch virus continues to threaten B.C.'s blueberry crop

One day in May 2023, Anand Aujlay was walking through his eight-hectare blueberry farm in Delta, B.C, when he noticed bushes that had yellowing leaves and shrivelled berries telltale signs of blueberry scorch.

The virus wiped out about three hectares of Didar Berry Farm's blueberry fields that year. Aujlay estimates he lost more than 45,000 kilograms of blueberries.

"It's very hard." You feel very sad because you worked on those plants for years and years, and then suddenly, this scorch virus just cleaned the field."

He's not alone.

Spread and transmitted by sap-sucking green insects called aphids, blueberry scorch has affected most blueberry farmers across the province. Scorch virus is not harmful to humans. But for blueberry bushes, itcan be fatal.

Blueberries are Canada's most valuable fruit export.

According to Statistics Canada, after marketing costs, the market value of blueberries reacheda record-high $364 million in 2022, followed by apples at approximately $285 million.

More than 90 per cent of those blueberries are produced in B.C., according to Agriculture Canada. On its website, the B.C. Blueberry Council says the province is home to more than 600 blueberry farms.

In an email to CBC News, Agriculture and Food Ministry spokesperson Dave Townsend said scorch virus was first detected in B.C. in 2000.

Michelle Franklin, a berry entomologist at the Agassiz Research and Development Centre, told The Early Edition the virus is widespread in the Fraser Valley.

"It does vary in that some fields have high levels of virus, and some fields don't have nearly as much," she said. "But we do have it in almost all fields."

According to Franklin, aphids, which often feed in gardens, yards and fields, transmit the virus from infected plants to new ones.

She said during the first year of infection, bushes may not show symptoms of the virus. But within five years, infected plants often die.

"These plants don't recover," she said. "We need to remove virus-infected plants so that they aren't a source for aphids to move the virus around in the field."

Every year, growers test plants one by one for the virus.

InDelta, Aujlay watched as the leaves on nearly half his blueberry bushes, mostly of the bluecrop variety, turned from green to yellow. He says the blueberries dried right off the bush, and he had to remove the crops completely.

"We spend our life raising these plants, and now, suddenly, it is gone."

In May, the provincial government announced it would add up to $70 million in funding toits program to help B.C. farmers replant damaged or diseased crops. The program was established in 2023 with$15 million in funding.

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In a news release, B.C.'s Ministry of Agriculture announced $70,000 toJMC Farms in Chilliwack to help it replant more than five hectares of blueberry plants affected by the virus.

Townsend said that last year, about a third of the program's fundingwent to more than 60 B.C. blueberry growers to help them replant diseased plants.

But Aujlaysays he didn't get funding to replant his blueberry bushes

"The small farmer did not get anything. It should have been divided into small portions to whoever is affected."

Now, he's rebuilding.

Aujlay says it takes several years for new bushes to produce berries and up to 10 years for them to mature.

He says he hasn't had a chance to test his plants for the virus yet this year, but he says he's planning on replanting some of his lost crops this September.

B.C.'s Agriculture and Food Ministry was asked about funding for smaller farms but did not provide a response.