British Columbia farmers lost $456.9 million in 2024, according to Statistics Canada, with a lobby group saying there are multiple reasons the province’s agricultural sector suffered the largest net loss in Canada last year.

Statistics Canada data shows that B.C. farms, as a whole, haven’t turned a profit since 2017, and the farm sector has seen a larger net loss every year since 2020.

The B.C. Agriculture Council said the cost to find suitable agricultural land is prohibitively high in B.C., and the average farmer in the Lower Mainland is carrying millions of dollars in debt.

In addition, a series of climate disasters have wreaked havoc on B.C. farms, including the 2021 floods in the Fraser Valley that affected 1,100 farms and led to more than 60,000 hectares of farmland being lost, according to Jennifer Woike, the president of the agriculture council.