When Jealous Fruits exports cherries to markets in Asia, more than 8,000 kilometres from the Okanagan, the family-owned company follows a careful process. Read More
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With U.S. tariffs putting a spotlight on the need for Canada to diversify its markets, the importance of Canada’s Asia Pacific gateway is at the forefront.
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When Jealous Fruits exports cherries to markets in Asia, more than 8,000 kilometres from the Okanagan, the family-owned company follows a careful process.
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The cherries are put into five-kilogram boxes with a liner bag that reduces the oxygen content, and the cherries are cooled to zero before being loaded on refrigerated trucks.
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When the cherries are going by plane, the four-hour trip to Vancouver from Jealous Fruit’s state-of-the-art plant at the north end of Kelowna is timed so that the boxes can be loaded into the belly of the aircraft shortly before takeoff across the Pacific Ocean.
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If the cherries are shipped through the Port of Vancouver, they’re first packed into cooled containers in the Okanagan before being trucked to the port, where they’re loaded onto ships for such destinations as Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, South Korea and China.
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Sunrise
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To ensure the cherries are in their best condition, they’re picked in the morning before being cooled, and then shipped that evening or the next morning.
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If the weather is hot, the cherries are often picked at night.
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With U.S. tariffs putting a spotlight on the need for Canada to diversify its markets, and contenders in the federal election delivering promises on transportation corridors, the importance of Canada’s Asia Pacific gateway is at the forefront.
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The question: How can Canada’s West Coast better capitalize on its geographic proximity to lucrative markets in Asia?
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David Green, Jealous Fruits’ CEO, says the company worked hard to develop markets in Asia over the past two decades.
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But he said traffic congestion in Metro Vancouver and highway bottlenecks, and disruptions caused by floods, fire and labour disputes, hurt Canada’s export reputation, especially when speed and efficiency are paramount to getting goods to market quickly and staying competitive globally.
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“Transportation corridors and better road networks, better rail capacity, pipeline capacity … we need to make it a national priority,” says Green, whose family has been growing cherries in the Okanagan since 1904. “Maybe Mr. Trump was a smack on the side of the head we needed as a country to wake us out of our slumber. We need to look after ourselves. Nobody else will.”
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Green isn’t alone in his thoughts on what Canada must do next.
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B.C. business representatives and export industry observers say if there ever was a time to act on diversifying markets and enhancing infrastructure and policy to make that happen, it is now.
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“The first thing we need is a national transportation plan,” says Lindsay Kislock, president and CEO of the Western Transportation Advisory Council, known as Westac, whose headquarters are in Vancouver.
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The organization’s members include representatives in all aspects of freight transportation in Western Canada, including ports, terminals, logistics providers, shippers, labour unions and three levels of government.
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A report produced by Westac annually that identifies critical issues affecting Western Canada’s freight transportation network emphasized in 2024 the need to invest in infrastructure, especially rail, to address bottlenecks and improve efficiency.
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The report highlighted the need to upgrade rail crossings on the Fraser River at New Westminster and to the North Shore at the Second Narrows.
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Upgrading the New West rail bridge has been on the federal government’s radar since at least 2010. The bridge is owned by the government but operated and maintained by CN Rail, with other railways having usage rights. Transport Canada has examined several options, including a double-deck bridge for $470 million.
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While the federal government has contributed money to ports and other transportation projects in B.C., the rail bridge project hasn’t been funded.
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Parties outline transportation plans
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The rail bridge upgrades haven’t been part of any federal election announcements during this national campaign.
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But the U.S.’s burgeoning global trade war has put a sharp focus on trade in the snap federal election called by Liberal Leader Mark Carney, who replaced Justin Trudeau as prime minister last month.
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Carney has promised a plan to build and improve the country’s “trade-enabling” infrastructure as a means to diversify trade away from the U.S., create new jobs and build a stronger economy. He says his party will put $5 billion into a new trade diversification corridor fund, authorize ports to co-operate instead of compete and strengthen security at ports. Carney argues the public investment could leverage another $10 billion in private sector announcements.
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Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is promising a national energy corridor meant to fast-track approvals for transmission lines, railways and other critical infrastructure. Poilievre says the pre-approved transport corridor would transport resources within Canada and to the world, bypassing the U.S. He says it will bring billions of dollars of investment into Canada’s economy, create “powerful paycheques” for Canadian workers and restore the country’s economic independence.
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Kislock said she thinks Canadians have woken up to the idea that there is a need to tap into other international markets. The U.S. is, by far, the largest export market for B.C., accounting for 54 per cent of cross-border shipments in 2023. China accounted for 14 per cent of exports and Japan 11 per cent.
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Kislock believes there’s a willingness by the private sector and all political parties to improve transportation to get goods to different markets.
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“We need to use the momentum and actually get going. Think big and act fast,” said Kislock.
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Others export industry observers have also pointed to the need for a national plan.
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It’s a key recommendation of a 2022 report, From Shovel Ready to Shovel Worthy: The Path to a National Trade Infrastructure Plan for the Next Generation of Economic Growth. The report was published by the Canada West Foundation, a conservative think-tank, that noted that international surveys showed confidence in the reliability and competitiveness of Canada’s trade infrastructure had been in decline for more than a decade.
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The report notes this has taken place despite significant investment spending by governments.
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John Law, one of the report’s authors and a former chairman of the Canadian Council of Deputy Ministers responsible for transportation and infrastructure, says this decline in confidence underscores the need to make investments that are of the highest priority, will produce maximum return on investment, represent the best long-term value and will increase transportation corridor competitiveness.
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“We need a national plan. We need a framework to help co-ordinate what are really important, interconnected aspects of the supply chains and economic corridors that our economy operates on,” Law said.
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He noted it’s critically important for Canada to do so because two-thirds of the country’s GDP, the value of all good and services, is tied to two-way trade.
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Law added a national infrastructure plan must also address the challenges posed by climate change.
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Westac’s 2024 report made a similar point, noting that investments are needed to increase the climate resiliency of transportation corridors. That report noted that labour disruptions — which can take place at ports or at rail companies — can also worsen the perceived competitiveness and reputation of Canada’s supply chains.
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In B.C. last year, veteran mediator Vince Ready and lawyer Amanda Rogers were appointed to head an industrial inquiry commission into disputes at Vancouver ports.
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A report is expected some time this year.
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Regulatory delay
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Industry observers say another key issue is that it takes too long to approve transportation projects.
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The $3.5 billion Roberts Bank Terminal 2 project would add a second container terminal, doubling the existing capacity at the artificial island.
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The project will increase Canada’s West Coast trade capacity by 30 per cent and is meant to address long-term projected growth of container cargo. The large steel boxes are used to export myriad products, including B.C. seafood, Prairie specialty grains and Jealous Fruits’ cherries.
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Port authority officials said construction is planned to start in 2028 — three years from now — and is still subject to authorization under the Fisheries Act and a positive final investment decision by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority.
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Bridgette Anderson, CEO of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, says spending on transportation are critical to competitively access markets in Asia and the Pacific region, including India.
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But she stressed the regulatory burden must be reduced.
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“We don’t have time to waste,” she said.
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Anderson pointed to the benefits of projects such as Roberts Bank Terminal 2, the $200 million Holdum Overpass project in Burnaby, which will eliminate a road-level rail crossing, and the Fraser Surrey Port Lands transportation improvements project, all of which are meant to improve traffic flow and boost capacity.
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She noted these types of projects don’t just bolster and support trade growth, they provide good jobs at a time when B.C. and Canada are facing some significant economic headwinds.
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Dave Earle, president of the B.C. Trucking Association, agrees that Canada needs a transportation infrastructure plan.
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But he said that plan must also be put into action.
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Earle argued the province could have had a 10 lane bridge in operation now to replace the constantly congested Massey Tunnel under the Fraser River. Instead, it’s “fingers crossed” there will be another tunnel in place six years from now.
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The bridge should have been a “national asset” on the way to Canada’s largest container terminal, he said.
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There are also innumerable pinch points on B.C.’s highways — low overpasses and narrow roads — that don’t properly accommodate large loads, he said.
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“We dither, and we take 10 years to make decisions, and the world passes us by,” said Earle. “This is urgent. If we don’t get on it, we’re going to be left behind.”
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A ‘national spirit’
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Jealous Fruits employs 37 people full-time in an agricultural and food sector in B.C. that exported $4.5 billion of products in 2024.
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During the pruning season in the spring and fall, the company employs 120 to 150 people and, at the height of the picking season, as many as 1,000.
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Green, who heads the company, said having several customers in diversified markets — in their case, in Canada, the U.S., Asia and Europe — is a benefit.
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He said any company thinking about shipping to Asia should take advantage of government trade programs, including the help they can get from Canadian trade commissioner offices around the world.
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Still, the company’s shipping experience in North America is telling.
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He noted that when Jealous Fruits ships cherries to Eastern Canada, truckers often dip down into the U.S. to use the American highways before returning to Canada. It’s an indication, he said, that Canada’s cross-country highways need improvement.
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“We can’t have any made-in-Canada problems. We have enough made-in-U.S.A. problems,” said Green. “We need a John A. Macdonald-type of nation-building here, where we link east and west, and we get a national spirit going, where Canada comes out of this stronger and better.”
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