WEATHER UPDATE SPONSORED BY THE HORTICENTRE GROUP
The weight of hail proved too much for some hail netting
All hailed out at top of the south Hail-hit Tasman growers need help to retain permanent staff because they won’t have any income for 18 months or longer. By Anne Hardie The Boxing Day hailstorm cost the region an estimated $100 million through loss of income and damage, and that is before the flow-on effects around the region. It has been described as the worst hailstorm in living memory in the region, wreaking havoc on a big chunk of horticultural land stretching from Riwaka around Motueka and through to Lower Moutere. The rest of the region was also peppered with hail, but it was the storm around Motueka that delivered the brutal damage. Pipfruit, kiwifruit, hops, berries and vineyards all got hammered. Some 300ha of this year’s apple crop was wiped out; two million trays of gold kiwifruit and 300,000 trays of green, half of around 150ha of hops decimated and about half the crop of 40ha of grapes lost.
30
The ORCHARDIST : FEBRUARY 2021
New Zealand Apples and Pears chief executive Alan Pollard says one of the biggest challenges for the hardest hit growers is retaining their permanent staff when they face no income for the next 18 months or more, but will have ongoing costs. He visited the region in mid-January when around 60 hail-affected growers attended a meeting with consultants, the Ministry for Primary Industries, the Ministry of Social Development and the Top of the South Rural Support Trust. He says some of the key aspects in the wake of the storm are managing and retaining staff, plus the mental health of growers who are facing huge stress, particularly financial.
