Welcome to B.C. Fruit Packers web site www.bcfruit.com.

We are located in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, Canada.

Our company name is B. C. Fruit Packers Cooperative. We are an amalgamation of cooperatives. The most recent amalgamation took place in the early 1980's. We have been in business since 1904! Annually we handle approximately 120 million pounds or 150,000 bins of apples and approximately 12 million pounds of pears. Along with three other cooperatives in the valley, we market our fruit through B.C. Tree Fruits Ltd. They own the familiar trademark.

A cooperative is owned by its members. In our situation, the member growers who bring their fruit to our storage, packaging, and shipping facilities own the company. Detailed records are kept for each growers' fruit. Growers are paid according to market returns from each variety they deliver. For example, apples are separated by variety, grade, and size. Each variety has three to five grades and each grade has twelve to fourteen sizes! That's a lot of information! The direct correlation to market returns encourages growers to produce the varieties, sizes, and grades demanded by your local grocery store. Unfortunately, sometimes mother nature can have a very significant influence!

Our seven field service people provide horticulture information and guidance to our 350 plus grower base. They help our growers in planting, nurturing, pruning, and harvesting.

We have three production plants with approximately 400 employees. One plant has pregrade facilities, one is a commit to pack line, and the third plant is dedicated to pear packaging. We own and operate fruit storage, packaging, and shipping facilities. We have controlled atmosphere capacity for 80,000 bins and total storage capacity for 160,000 bins.

Our top seven major apple varieties are McIntosh, Red Delicious, Spartan, Royal Gala, Golden Delicious, Jonagold, and Fuji. Our growers harvest more than 30 varieties of apples! Varieties that are too small in volume for our large production lines are sold in our factory outlets. The limited production variety selection in our stores is best from mid October through January. Pear varieties are primarily Bartlett and D'Anjou. Other pear varieties are also sold in our factory outlets. Available in season from our growers are limited volumes of cherries, apricots, peaches, prunes, and nectarines. On your next visit to the Okanagan Valley, visit one of our factory outlet stores.

Want a tour of the packaging facilities? Look below at our plant tours.