By Abigail Popple, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, RMG
The BC Vegetable Marketing Commission (BCVMC) is in the midst of modifying its general orders – the legal framework which ensures food safety, market regulation, and safe transportation in the vegetable production industry – after consulting with northern producers over the summer.
The consultations follow an attempt in early 2024 to expand the general orders to apply to the northern half of the province, which has historically been exempt from the Commission’s regulations. The orders require producers who sell over 1,000 pounds of regulated produce, such as cabbage, cucumbers and beans, to obtain licences for an annual fee ranging from $250 to $50K depending on the amount of produce they sell.
The expansion sparked controversy among northern producers, who told The Goat they were not consulted before the expansion and were concerned that the licensing fees may pose a significant financial burden on small producers. In May, the Commission announced it would delay the implementation of the expanded orders until January 1st, 2026.
“This will give the Commission time to consult with vegetable producers, producer organizations, and other industry partners regarding the nature and extent of vegetable production in the north and develop a common-sense approach to the Commission’s involvement,” reads the announcement about the delay.
Shortly afterwards, the Commission hired Jerome Lengkeek as its new Senior Policy and Market Analyst. In an interview with The Goat, Lengkeek said he spent the month of August touring the north, speaking to producers, farmers’ market associations, and representatives of the Fraser-Fort George and Bulkley-Nechako regional districts.
The information he gathered will inform the Commission’s new implementation plan for the expanded general orders.
“I have a much better feel now for what the concerns are,” Lengkeek said. “The next step on this would be to have an additional round of engagement with farmers in the north to present an implementation plan that has been modified based on their concerns, and get their feedback on that before we finalize an [implementation] approach.”
The modified plan for implementing the general orders will likely be released around mid-2025, according to Lengkeek. It will be posted on the Commission’s website, bcveg.com, and Lengkeek says he will contact regional districts, farmers’ institutes, and farmers’ market associations to inform them once the plan is ready for public feedback.
Commission addressing concerns over fees, market regulation
While the plan is far from being set in stone, Lengkeek has identified four major concerns that he hopes to resolve: the lack of consultation during the first attempt to expand the general orders, the cost of licensing fees and levies, misgivings that being regulated by the Commission will not provide any benefits to producers, and a lack of input into the Commission’s decision making processes.
The Commission has been making an effort to consult with producers since deciding to delay the expansion of the general orders in May, according to Lengkeek. To make sure northern producers are included in future decision making, the Commission may create an advisory panel of northern producers and local government representatives. The Commission already has similar advisory groups for storage crop producers and greenhouse producers, Lengkeek added.
As for concerns about licensing fees, Lengkeek says the Commission may implement lower fees for smaller producers. The Commission also collects levies ranging from a few cents to several dollars per tonne of produce, which Lengkeek says may be reduced or eliminated for small producers. Finally, while larger producers are required to sell their product through a marketing agency – groups of licensed producers that allows the Commission to coordinate the marketing of vegetables – the Commission may not require small producers in the north to join a marketing agency.
“We hope to have a simplified process for applying for a producer licence for smaller producers so there’s less of a burden with reporting information,” Lengkeek added.
Concerns about fees are top of mind for local farmers. Prince George-based vegetable farmer Dean Dingwall said he was alarmed by the expansion of the general orders, since fees would apply to anyone who produces over a tonne of vegetables – a threshold he feels is too low. Dingwall joined the Prince George-McBride Farmers’ Institute task force on the Commission’s general orders to advocate for fee exemptions for smaller farmers.
“It was a bit of a pleasant surprise,” Dingwall said about his discussion with Lengkeek. “Everything that we had tried to do prior to that fell on deaf ears.”
Now, Dingwall is cautiously optimistic that the Commission will take northern producers’ feedback into account. He hopes the Commission will continue consulting with producers before the general orders are expanded in 2026.
“They did give us hope that we could have some input, revisit the threshold, and have a say in helping them form policy that affects us,” Dingwall said. “The general consensus among task force members was that it was a good start, and at least gives us hope on the possibility of changing the way they’re going to push this through.”
However, some producers worry being regulated by the Commission will create a logistical headache with no benefit to northern producers. Field crop producer Philip Myatovic expressed concern that the Commission may neglect to regulate northern markets, allowing large southern producers to out-compete smaller local operations at farmers’ markets and in stores.
“I can’t see any benefit right off the bat, but it will cost us more to produce because of their licensing and distribution system,” Myatovic said.
Lengkeek said he has heard concerns from northern producers that the Commission does not adequately regulate northern markets – some producers claimed that a southern producer violated Commission regulations by selling excess product at a Prince George farmers’ market earlier this year. According to Lengkeek, the Commission investigated the claims and did not find any activity that violated marketing regulations, but he hopes the Commission will have less difficulty regulating northern markets after expanding the general orders.
“By extending the area of applicability of our regulations to the northern half of the province, we would hopefully be able to prevent this from happening already for the next growing season,” Lengkeek said.
Additionally, Lengkeek stressed that the vast majority of northern producers will not be subject to the general orders even after they are expanded – only 20 crops, including storage crops like beets, greenhouse crops like tomatoes, and processing crops like broccoli, are regulated by the Commission, most of which are not produced in the north.
“That’s not to say that there isn’t a significant agriculture industry in the north, it’s just that it’s focused in areas that are not under our regulation,” Lengkeek said. “I can say with certainty that less than a dozen farms would fall fully under our regulations, and probably far less than a dozen.”
Nearly every farmer Lengkeek spoke to this summer does not produce more than a tonne of regulated crops, meaning they would not be subject to regulations, he added.
Lengkeek says he will continue to engage with northern producers over the next year.
“The purpose of the meetings with farmers and members of local government who had concerns about the regulations was to hear more from them directly and in-person what their concerns were, and reassure them that we wanted to respond to those concerns and look at whether we might be able to make some amendments to the regulations,” Lengkeek said. “And I felt like we succeeded in that.”
