What’s been described as the biggest hailstorm to hit the Motueka area in living memory, decimated some kiwifruit and apple crops in the region. While further south, heavy and persistent rain is predicted to have a similar impact on the Central Otago cherry harvest.
Motueka kiwifruit and apple orchardist Evan Heywood says no one in the area can remember a hail storm like the one that hit on Boxing Day.
He says orchards around Motueka and through to Lower Moutere bore the brunt of the weather, with the effect of pea to marble-sized hail stones that fell for more than half-an-hour made much worse by strong winds.
“I was half expecting the roofs on outbuildings to peel off. It (the hail) was coming in horizontally,” Heywood said.
He says Zespri representatives have visited the area since and it looks like 2.1 million trays of the area’s expected harvest of 4 million trays have been lost, with about half the green kiwifruit crop also gone.
He says it’s still too early to give an accurate number on the effect on the area’s apple crop, but from what he has heard from growers who supply his company’s packhouse, losses range from 50 to 100% of expected production.
Tasman hop growers also suffered.
Mac Hops director Brent McGlashen was one who was hardest hit.
McGlashen, whose home farm is on the outskirts of Motueka, with another block in Lower Moutere, says it is hard to put an exact figure on the amount of damage done to his crop but he will be lucky if he manages to harvest half the volume he had been expecting to.
Switching winds from the north and south during the storm blew the hailstones from alternating directions, shredding his crop.
“It was basically like a serrated knife,” he says, with some areas stripped completely bare.
He says the financial impact of the storm will slow future investment by growers in the area and its effects will be widespread.
Downstream businesses like trucking companies, electricians and those involved in irrigation would also be affected.
“Those sprockets in behind the pedal, they’ll take a hit too,” he said.
Central Otago cherry growers are yet to count the final cost of persistent and extended rain in the area during the past fortnight, but it’s going to be significant.
Cherries are the area’s biggest export earner, bringing in about $84 million in the 2017-18 year and more than $66m the following year.
Too much rain causes cherries to swell and split, making the fruit unsellable.
Fourth generation Cromwell orchardist Simon Webb says he’s had a third of his average annual rainfall in the past fortnight.
“That’s caused a lot of damage although the degree of it varies,” he said.
Some cherry growers he has spoken to have lost between half of the fruit in some of the blocks to complete crop write-offs in others.
“A lot of blocks have just been walked away from, which is mentally very hard but you’ve got to keep going and try and salvage what you can.
“It’s been tough. We’ve had to deal with worries around finding workers and organising transport (for export fruit) and now we’ve had the weather.”
He says there are still a lot of cherries to come off trees and it won’t be until growers get in and have a closer look in the next few days that they will have a better idea of what the total cost could be.
One long-standing grower Webb has spoken to said he can’t remember rain in the area like it since 1992 – and there’s a lot more cherries today so the financial impact will be greater.
Webb says it’s not uncommon for rain to take out a week of the cherry harvest, but the latest rainfall has hit varieties that are not due for harvest for another two or three weeks.
While the areas hardest hit by weather have been around Cromwell and through to Earnscleugh, fruit growers right down to Roxburgh have also been affected.
As well as cherries, he’s expecting the apricot harvest in the area to suffer to some extent.
Like McGlashen, Webb says it’s not just growers who will feel the pain, with staff, downstream businesses and future investment in the industry also expected to take a hit.
