Delivering after a costly road to recovery

The road to restoring the beating heart of Hawke’s Bay’s economy in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle promises to be a daunting one, spanning years of dedicated efforts and requiring hundreds of millions of dollars in investments.

Cyclone Gabrielle tore through the North Island on 14 February, wreaking havoc across Hawke’s Bay, decimating hundreds of hectares of crops and orchards and causing damage to rail and roading which is expected to plague local businesses for years to come.

The cyclone hit the region at the worst time, with apple crops ready to harvest. Horticulture stands as the bedrock of the local economy, with apple earnings alone making a staggering annual contribution of approximately $700 million.

With metres of silt left covering land and smothering crops, local growers have described the aftermath of the cyclone as “total carnage” and the “horticulture apocalypse”. But leading fresh produce company T&G Global is determined not to let one of the biggest natural disasters to hit New Zealand’s horticulture industry throw it off course.

“We have the strength and resilience to work through this and deliver on our future growth strategy,” Craig Betty, Director of Operations at T&G Global, says.

Hawke’s Bay is home to a sizeable part of T&G Global’s apple business, including packhouses, cool stores, and orchards. Four-and-a-half months on, Mr Betty has spoken about the initial challenges the company faced, the “considerable” recovery process ahead, and the forecast financial loss.

“It was devastating to see the impact Cyclone Gabrielle caused across Hawke’s Bay, Taira - whiti Gisborne, and other parts of the North Island, especially off the back of the heavy rain, floods, and slips which occurred in late January across parts of Aotearoa,” Mr Betty says.

“Today – over four months after the cyclone – we continue to conduct significant remediation work across our impacted Hawke’s Bay orchards, particularly in relation to the removal of silt and debris. This will take considerable time.”

He says the company is forecasting a loss of $28 to $34 million before income tax for the 2023 financial year.

“This forecast allows for all known cyclone impacts (including clean-up costs) and includes a provision for the one-off writedown of trees and planting structures devastated by the event.”

Mr Betty says the company is also working with insurers to assess potential recovery.

The initial response

Mr Betty vividly recalls the challenging circumstances faced following the cyclone. Amidst the chaos and widespread destruction, T&G Global swiftly established a crisis response team at the home of a staff member.

“Our immediate priority is always the safety and welfare of our people, and that was our focus on February 14 in Hawke’s Bay and Tairawhiti .”

He says they were up against “very challenging circumstances with telecommunications and power out, and many roads and bridges impassable”.

“Thankfully our people, seasonal team members, and partner growers were safe –although a number had to be rescued off roofs and lost their belongings, homes, and/ or orchards.”

Support poured in from colleagues across the country, including a provision of generators, equipment, safety gear, and even homebaked goods for team members rescued from their flooded accommodation and employees who lost their homes.

Surveying the damage

As soon as it was safe to do so, the company commenced detailed assessments of its facilities. Minor flooding was reported in T&G’s office facilities, one packhouse, cool stores, and the distribution centre.

Mr Betty says while the majority of the company’s owned and leased orchards were not impacted by the cyclone, four were “severely impacted”, representing approximately 13 per cent of T&G’s planted hectares in Hawke’s Bay.

“A further 22 per cent of the planted hectares in Hawke’s Bay were impacted to a varying extent and are expected to have reduced productive capacity for two-to-three years.”

Mr Betty says February is the start of Hawke’s Bay’s apple season and the company had

BY RENEE OLIVER

been harvesting for just under two weeks before Cyclone Gabrielle hit.

“This meant the fruit that was on the trees was ready – or near ready – to be picked. For orchards that were completely unaffected, as soon as the sites were approved from a health and safety perspective, our teams began harvesting the crop.

“At the same time, teams were working as fast as possible to remove silt from around the base of our trees to do our best to protect and preserve the health of the tree.”

One of T&G Global’s existing packhouses was not impacted and operations resumed there five days after the cyclone ravaged the North Island.

“Our brand new world-class highly automated Whakatu - packhouse was in the final stages of construction, and thankfully wasn’t impacted by the cyclone and has been commissioned in recent months.

“For our domestic T&G Fresh transport team, who deliver fresh fruit and vegetables to our network of 11 market sites across Aotearoa, as well as to some of our retail customers, they were focused on ensuring they kept fresh produce safely flowing to Kiwis in the aftermath of the cyclone. “This required a lot of agility and adaptability, with the impacts to the roading network resulting in route changes,” he says.

‘Beyond proud’

Beyond the forecast financial losses and physical damage, the story that unfolded for T&G was one of compassion, strength, and a strong sense of community spirit.

“The cyclone has left destruction in its wake and recovery is as mentally challenging as it is physically challenging for everyone impacted by it,” Mr Betty says.

“While it has impacted parts of our operation, it has further demonstrated the resilience, care, determination, and passion of our team.

“Together they rallied around, providing support to each other as well as our grower partners and the wider community, and helping clean up homes, properties, and orchards. We are beyond proud of our T&G team.

“As a business, it’s further reinforced and shown us that we have the strength and resilience to work through this and deliver on our future growth strategy.”