Strawberry fields devastated by recent rains

It's bad news for strawberry lovers this Christmas.
Rain over the past week has ruined strawberry fields across the Western Bay of Plenty, leaving little behind to meet festive demand.
Richard Somerfield, from Somerfield Berries in Oropi, said rain had damaged the majority of their crop.
Somerfield Berries is the region's largest strawberry grower and at least 165mm of rain has fallen on their 1.6 ha strawberry patch since the weekend. The rain has wasted away parts of the berries, leaving some to rot, others to grow mould and others with parts best resembling mush.
While workers at the berry farm have picked away the inedible fruit, some less damaged have been saved with the offending bits cut off and the rest frozen.
Mr Somerfield said he doubted there would be enough fresh strawberries for Tauranga this Christmas.
"There won't be.
"I can't see how there would be," he said.
Mr Somerfield said they usually sent 3000 punnets a day to the city markets.
On Sunday they did not send any. On Monday they sent 280 punnets and yesterday, none were sent.
"If it stays fine from now we will have something for Christmas but we won't recover by then," he said.
Normally, the orchard picks between 750kg to a tonne of fresh strawberries a day.
Somerfield Berries have not suffered a dramatic financial loss, mainly due to some damaged fruit being saved and frozen but Mr Somerfield said the rain's damage was still a "huge blow" for them "and the people of Tauranga".
Meanwhile, Kay Thomas from Kauri Point Strawberries in Katikati said she did not want to even hazard a guess at the many strawberries they had to throw out because of the rain.
"It's made a big mess. We are bad, really bad."
Ms Thomas said there would definitely be a shortage of strawberries for the region but stressed she would still have some available.
"It's not going to be a good Christmas for the Bay."
Ms Thomas said she did not know yet if they would raise prices and Mr Somerfield said it was unlikely they would.
He remained philosophical about the rain damage.
"It's like any kind of farming, be it meat, dairy or produce. You are always going to have disasters," Mr Somerfield said.