H&R Orchards: four sales approved, and $1.2 million held back

On October 19, 2026, Justice Gropper of the Supreme Court of British Columbia signed five orders on the receiver's application. Four approve sales: the winery's two parcels, to 1596490 B.C. Ltd. and two individuals; the Canyon Bloc, seven H&R parcels at Canyon, to 1013830 B.C. Ltd.; the Lister Bloc, five H&R parcels, to the Lower Kootenay Band; and a single H&R parcel at 1926 37th Street, to four individuals, per the Order Approving Sale (Winery), Oct. 19, 2026, para. 1, the Order Approving Sale (Canyon), Oct. 19, 2026, para. 1, Sched. C, the Order Approving Sale (Lister Block), Oct. 19, 2026, para. 1, Sched. C and the Order Approving Sale (37th), Oct. 19, 2026, para. 1. The orders do not print prices. The receiver's report gives them as $5,756,000, $5,900,000, $5,000,000 and $1,500,000, which together come to $18,156,000, per the Second Report of the Receiver, Sept. 8, 2026, paras. 45, 63, 72, 81.

The fifth order authorizes and directs the receiver to pay Farm Credit Canada an interim distribution of "the net sale proceeds remaining after" two reserves: $500,000 for "ongoing administration costs and any priority claims that may arise and rank in priority to FCC's indebtedness," and $1,200,000 "pending the final determination or resolution of the claims asserted by FCC and Cherrycrest Inc., against H&R Orchards Ltd." It sets no figure for the distribution itself, per the Order for Interim Distribution, Oct. 19, 2026, para. 1.

The group and its lender

When the two individual respondents bought the Osoyoos property in 2016, it was "an old orchard with an old house," according to the affidavit H&R Orchards' manager swore for the group in November 2025; the vineyard was planted and the winery built after the purchase, per the Affidavit of H&R's manager, Nov. 4, 2025, paras. 1, 12. Lakeside Cellars Ltd. ran a winery and wine store there. Desert Valley Vineyard Ltd. grew grapes at Oliver and made them into wine sold under the Lakeside Cellars label, at the winery and through wholesale and retail outlets across British Columbia and Canada, per the receiver's Second Report of the Receiver, Sept. 8, 2026, paras. 19–21, 23–24.

Around Creston, H & R Orchards Ltd. grew and sold grain, hay and cherries and ran a cherry packing plant. In 2025 the group farmed 125 acres of cherries, 900 acres of grain and 300 acres of forage, the manager swore, and the cherry crop "was over 75% lost due to rain." The affidavit puts the group's financial difficulties down to "several years of poor harvests" and, in 2025, to low crop prices "due to tariffs," per the Affidavit of H&R's manager, Nov. 4, 2025, paras. 4, 15, 27 and the Second Report of the Receiver, Sept. 8, 2026, para. 16. Farm Credit Canada, the senior secured creditor, was owed approximately $27,229,824 when Ernst & Young Inc. was appointed receiver and manager on April 14, 2026, under mortgages over the H&R, Desert Valley and individual respondents' lands and other security agreements, per the Second Report of the Receiver, Sept. 8, 2026, paras. 1, 4, 17, 22, 25, 31, 34.

A receiver with a start date

Farm Credit Canada issued demand letters between May and June 2025 and filed its petition on October 9, 2025, per the Second Report of the Receiver, Sept. 8, 2026, para. 32 and the Receivership Order, Apr. 14, 2026, para. 1. Both sets of respondents resisted a receiver. The group's response said it was "not just and convenient to appoint a receiver," per the Response to Petition of the H&R respondents, Nov. 5, 2025, para. 25. CherryCrest Inc., a respondent holding a certificate of pending litigation against part of the H&R land, said the receivership and the other relief sought were neither "just" nor "convenient" and "ought to be dismissed," per the Response to Petition (CherryCrest), Nov. 12, 2025, paras. 26, 48.

Justice Gropper appointed Ernst & Young Inc. on April 14, 2026, as receiver and manager, without security, of all the assets, undertakings and property of Desert Valley Vineyard Ltd., Creston Valley Cherry Growers Ltd., H & R Orchards Ltd., Lakeside Cellars Ltd. and the two individuals, excluding, for the individuals, vehicles financed by parties other than FCC, personal and household goods, and personal accounts not used for business, and adjourned the balance of the petition generally. The receiver could market and sell the property only "effective May 27, 2026," per the Receivership Order, Apr. 14, 2026, paras. 1–2, 3(k)–(l). The receiver's report says that delay was to give the debtors time to obtain financing to repay FCC, and that as at September 8 neither the receiver nor its counsel had been contacted by one of the individual respondents, or that respondent's counsel, to confirm that the funds had been received and deposited into a bank account in Canada, per the Second Report of the Receiver, Sept. 8, 2026, paras. 91, 94.

The court approved the receiver's sales process on June 11, per the Sales Process Order, June 11, 2026, para. 3. The group took no position on it but reserved "all rights to oppose the Receiver's application for approval of a sale for any reason including that the exposure period and/or marketing efforts by the Receiver turned out to be inadequate," per the Application Response of the H&R respondents, June 10, 2026, Part 4, para. 2.

Sotheby's International Realty Canada took the Desert Valley and individual respondents' lands at Oliver and Osoyoos, and Century 21 Real Estate the H&R land. Sotheby's sent its materials to 162 parties and recorded 18 non-disclosure agreements; Century 21 recorded seven. Nine offers came in for the Oliver and Osoyoos land and seven for parts of the H&R land, and the receiver, in consultation with FCC, accepted three of each, per the Second Report of the Receiver, Sept. 8, 2026, paras. 37–41.

Four buyers

The winery sale covers two parcels with the Lakeside Cellars winery, its production facility, vineyard assets, equipment and inventory. The buyers paid a $500,000 deposit when the receiver accepted their offer, and closing was set for within ten business days of court approval, per the Second Report of the Receiver, Sept. 8, 2026, paras. 43–45.

The Canyon Bloc carries three houses, cherry orchards and a permanent packaging line with related equipment. Two of the houses, the receiver understood, were unoccupied and in use for storage or as a workshop; the third was a rental house occupied by tenants. The buyer, 1013830 B.C. Ltd., paid a $590,000 deposit, and the report says it had been given until September 11 to remove its financing and insurance conditions, per the Second Report of the Receiver, Sept. 8, 2026, paras. 77–79, 81.

The Lister Bloc's five parcels hold a rental house, grain and hay fields, cherry orchards, irrigation systems and a centre-pivot irrigation system. One of them, PID 013-969-731, has no debt registered on title. It sits between PID 013-969-749, which carries debt owing to FCC, and road access to Riverview Road and 37th Street, and the receiver said the buyer would likely not complete unless both parcels were in the sale. The Lower Kootenay Band paid a $500,000 deposit. The 2026 cherry crop is not part of the deal: under an orchard remediation and management agreement with the receiver, a third-party service provider, which the report does not name, was engaged to remediate, maintain, manage and harvest the cherry orchards, and it retains the proceeds of the 2026 harvest to reimburse costs the report estimates at approximately $1,000,000, "with the potential to generate some profit." In return it paid the receiver a fixed fee, per the Second Report of the Receiver, Sept. 8, 2026, paras. 68–69, 71–75, 85–88.