Hail fears for kiwifruit growers

Hailstorm devastates crops

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Bay of Plenty Kiwifruit growers could be facing tough times if their worst fears from the recent hail storm in Tauranga are realised.

However, it is still too early to know the extent of any damage caused, according to industry insiders.

The Bay of Plenty area was struck by severe hail and heavy rain yesterday which caused extensive flooding and forced the evacuation of the Bayfair Shopping Centre.

New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Association President Peter Ombler from Te Puke said the Association would do all it could to help any growers who had been affected.

“At the end of the day if it’s been a seriously major event there’ll be some pain or some loss, that’s the guts of it but that’s just a kneejerk response at this stage, we don’t yet know the guts of it.”

He said there was some industry insurance but it would not be enough if the damage was too serious.

The extent of the damage might not be immediately noticeable as the fruit could be bruised internally.

“The guts of it is that it’s too early to really make a sound judgment about how serious the event’s been,” he said, adding that it could be around three days before they knew.

A first storm, which he believed had been the more violent, had struck along the coast while a second had struck right in the heart of Te Puke, where the majority of growers were located.

It had struck right on dark and growers were out assessing the damage this morning.

He said it was “not a normal event” for this time of year and there was no precedent for them to draw from.

“Everybody’s scratching their head and just needs to have a cup of tea and work out where to go.”

Forty percent of the green kiwifruit and 70 percent of the golden kiwifruit had been harvested already, he said.

Any damaged fruit would be not be harvested.

* Recently, Kiwifruit exporter Zespri destroyed more than 60,000 trays of export-quality green kiwifruit in Nelson, in a move to cut between one and two million trays of surplus green kiwifruit in order to keep export prices up.

The move caused a flurry of responses on Stuff.co.nz with many saying the fruit should have been given to schools and charities instead.

“It’s a crime against mankind,” said one respondent.

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