YOUR INDUSTRY
SUMMERFRUIT UPDATE
2020–21 New Zealand market review By Richard Mills : NZ Market Support, Summerfruit NZ
Weather influences
Crop loads
As always, a season review for any crop will be influenced by the weather and the peculiarity of the timing of any event. It was not the best winter chilling ever, but the amount of winter chill was more than adequate in all regions if we consider that 800 or more Richardson chill units is needed for a good cherry crop and a bit less for the other summerfruit crops. It was a good start.
Fruit set was generally good apart from the Central Otago apricots mentioned earlier. Hawke’s Bay was always on for a bigger crop after last year’s hailstorm. Nectarines, peaches and plums countrywide set up well, as did cherries in Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough. We were looking at potentially the biggest cherry crop ever out of Central Otago, taking into account new plantings and a full crop load.
Winter chill (Richardson units) 1 May – 30 August 2020
Sundrop apricots in Hawke’s Bay did shed more flowers than ideal and as harvest progressed, a few varieties of peach and nectarine were found to be emptier than initially thought.
2017
2018
2019
2020
Bay View
1561
1450
1378
1350
Renwick
1782
1745
1613
1661
Alexandra
1730
1672
1826
1516
A frost of -7°C in Central Otago in August is thought to have had a major impact on the apricot volume. A little further into the year some Central Otago orchards had a little hail and snow in the trees. Growing degree days, or hours above 10°C, were for most of the season good to very good, and in the case of the Longlands site in Hawke’s Bay, quite exceptional. Most of the harvest period was earlier than normal, and it was often a question of by how much. The early Central Otago harvest and big crops from Hawke’s Bay created more competition for shelf space than is ideal for the greater summerfruit community. Growing degree days 1 September 2020 – 30 March 2021 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 Longlands
1362
1491
1425
1458
1509
Renwick
1137
1354
1319
1173
1171
Cromwell
889
1249*
1069
977
1015
*unusually hot year in Central Otago that caused fruit quality issues
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The ORCHARDIST : MAY 2021
The biggest influence was rain on cherries, and across all three regions. Sometimes it’s not so much the total amount as the timing in relation to fruit maturity, i.e. just before harvest. Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough both had a 100mm+ rain in November which affected the pre-Christmas weeks. Central Otago’s turn was in early January which had maximum negative impact for export harvest. There are growers across the country that will not have made much money from their cherries this season. Labour From the position of sitting in the Summerfruit NZ office, I was able to witness the huge effort that went into finding people to prepare and harvest the crops. A new seasonal labour co-ordinator role was created in the regions and the Central Otago person became part of the Summerfruit NZ team, working for summerfruit, pipfruit and wine crops. There has been lots of meeting with politicians with some wins, but at orchard level, it has been difficult and expensive. We are fortunate that the harvest of summerfruit mostly coincides with university holidays which, along with other initiatives, managed to see most but not all of the crop picked. From what was seen at retail, the fruit was more often at the eating ripe stage, suggesting that we managed, but just.
