N.S. spends $15M on grape, fruit growers’ recovery from February cold snap

Funding announced for N.S. fruit growers' recovery N.S. is spending $15 million to help grape and other fruit growers recover from a cold snap that affected their crops last month.

After assessing the damage to crops province-wide following a cold snap last month, money is coming for farmers across Nova Scotia.

“The provincial government is committing another $15 million to fruit growers impacted by the polar vortex in February,” says Nova Scotia’s Agriculture Minister Greg Morrow.

That cold snap followed an unusually mild winter.

According to data from the Kentville Research and Development Centre, December and January were the warmest on record, dating back a century. That left plants vulnerable to temperatures that reached -40 C with the windchill.

“Every vineyard in Nova Scotia has been affected by this event,” says Steve Ells, the president of the Grape Growers Association of Nova Scotia.

The association has 85 members. In some cases, 100 per cent of certain varieties of grapes as well as other fruit crops like raspberries and cherries were destroyed.

“This will mean a significant reduction in the 2023 harvest of grapes in Nova Scotia and possibly affect harvest for the next three to five years,” Ells says.

The $15 million from the province can be combined with other risk management programs like ag-insurance, ag-stability and ag-recovery.

“We are only anticipating about a 50 per cent crop on 10 per cent of our vineyard,” says Michael Lightfoot, the owner of Lightfoot and Wolfville vineyards.

“We’ll use it to certainly replant if necessary. We’ll certainly use it to help us with our labour.”

Lightfoot farms 40 acres. His $2-million payroll supports 75 people.

“We should hopefully be back in production in a few short years, two to three years hopefully. That‘s providing the trunks aren’t damaged, if the trucks are damaged we could be looking at a complete replant of the actual vineyard. That would be devastating,” says Lightfoot.

The wine industry alone creates $250 million in gross revenue for Nova Scotia. Minister Morrow says his department will work with the industry over the coming months to distribute the $15 million.