Cherries come a cropper

CHRISTINE CORNEGE/Marlborough Express

BADLY BRUISED: Kiwi Cherries picker Helene Poirier, from Canada, with a handful of split stella cherries, which have blown apart with persistent rain. A marketing company, which deals with Marlborough cherries, is said to be predicting 50 per cent fewer cherries from the region this year.

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Persistent wet spring weather has been disastrous for growers of Marlborough's much-loved Christmas crops.

Rain has split cherries and despite growers' best efforts to defend their crops with helicopters and rain-resistant sprays this year's harvest is looking grim.

Kiwi Cherries owner Terry Sowman said fruit under covers were OK, but varieties exposed to the elements had been "blowing apart".

"It's turned to custard ... It's quite disappointing.

"This is critical for the run into Christmas," he said, adding there would likely be a shortage of cherries come Christmas.

Mr Sowman said market gardeners MG Marketing, which deals with many of Marlborough's cherries, were expecting 50 per cent less fruit from the district this season. A representative from the company could not confirm that figure.

Mr Sowman said prices on the local market were holding firm thanks to growers in Central Otago and Hawke's Bay, which had also experienced higher rainfall than usual.

Cherrybank owner Bernie Rowe said rain had damaged up to 30 per cent of his crop, but he hoped later varieties would not be as badly hit.

At Jones Berryfruit, owner Cecilia Jones said rain this week had turned mature fruit "mushy" meaning it was good only for second-grade sales or jam.

Strawberries would keep cropping until May and there was another block of unripe fruit that remained undamaged and should provide good volumes for the Christmas run, she said.

"I've grown strawberries for many years. This happens year in and year out so we are used to it. You can't control the weather."

Last year Jones Berryfruit lost $80,000 to $100,000 of strawberries, boysenberries, raspberries and cherries when a chiller was accidentally turned off.

Primac Horticulture owner Murray Neal said unsettled, cold spring conditions meant fruit quality on his block was below par.

Mr Neal said it was not going to be a bumper year, but "we've got a crop to sell which is better than some".

"You've got to be an optimist or you wouldn't be growing fruit."

He hoped to pick his first fruit about a week before Christmas.

The rain has also had an effect on grapes.

Villa Maria viticulturist Mike Croad said the wet weather meant there was no rapid spring growth, putting them two weeks behind normal years. He said the critical time would be in a couple of weeks when flowering set in.

"The weather we've had and are having – it's too early to say what effect it will have on yields as the critical period will be the middle of December."

On the flipside, pastoral farmers around the region are "jumping for joy", says Marlborough Federated Farmers president Geoff Evans.

He was savouring "every second" of the deluge.

Cold temperatures in early spring followed by a sustained period of hot dry northwesterly winds had dried out the high country and stunted growth, meaning the rain was welcome.

Awatere Valley high country farmer Graham Black, of Awapiri, said the 35 millimetres of rain that fell on his station this week had been a "godsend". Annual rainfall was well down on normal, he said, and the wet weather over the last few days was the most the property had seen in a long time.

"It's well soaked in ... This should kick the ewe country away and give us a bit of a margin to work with," he said.

Meadowbank co-owner Duncan Grigg said the rain would set the property up for an easy summer. There was plenty of base to the pasture, and "plenty waving in the wind", he said.

"If we could have this nine years out of 10 we'd be pretty happy ... It's how spring should be."

Havelock dairy farmer Tony Sorensen said the rain was "probably the best Christmas present" dairy farmers could get.

"We are well up on last year. It's one of the best years we've had."

- The Marlborough Express