Packing facility proposed
The owners of a rapidly-expanding cherry growing business hope to establish a new packing facility in north Kelowna.
David and Laura Geen, of Coral Beach Farms, say the company has outgrown its current, 30-square-foot operation in Lake Country.
“This facility will be inadequate to meet total production requirements by 2020,” the Geens wrote in a letter to the City of Kelowna.
“The nature of the present site, and its location at the end of a long winding road, make it unsuitable for expansion,” the Geens say.
Coral Beach Farms currently has 670 acres of cherries in the Okanagan-Thompson region, with the total expected to rise to nearly 1,100 acres by 2020.
The company produced 3,660 tons of sweet cherries last year, most for export, with a forecast crop of between 6,0007,000 tons by 2021.
One of the sites being eyed by the company for a new packing plant is a 29-acre site between Shanks Road and Highway 97 North, a little south of the Jammery restaurant.
Plans are for the new facility to handle about 65 per cent of production, with the rest processed at the existing Lake Country plant.
To bring in the cherry crop, Coral Beach has a summertime workforce of nearly 900 employees, with about 60 per cent being Mexicans and Jamaicans brought in under a federally-supervised program.
Nearly 800 seasonal workers at housed in accommodation owned by the company, or at leased premises on Silver Star Mountain.
As part of the plans for the north Kelowna site, Coral Beach Farms wants to get permission from the city for temporary housing for 140 workers. Outside of the peak cherry-picking season, the beds might be rented to UBC Okanagan students or other locals.
Kelowna city council will consider the matter at a meeting today.
Municipal staff recommend approval, saying the project conforms to city goals aimed at supporting agriculture. The city’s agricultural advisory committee has already reviewed and supported the proposal.