Jenny Mark, husband Ken and son Trevor were rescued from the Tait Road home as flood water rose during Cyclone Gabrielle
“Nightmare” is a word New Zealand Apples & Pears market access manager Danielle Adsett uses a lot.
In her words, Cyclone Gabrielle was a nightmare and, while some Hawke’s Bay growers are still dealing with that nightmare, on the whole, the 2024 season won’t be as bad aswas feared.
It will be January before a full crop estimate becomes available, but indications are that a good spring means the 2024 crop will exceed this year’s cyclone-affected one.
It’s still a long way from a full recovery for the industry, but not as dire as originally predicted after February’s flooding.
Danielle Adsett, of NZ Apples & Pears, right, inspects a cyclone-damaged orchard in Puketapu. Photo / NZME
“We had 2000 hectares that we thought was at risk, but the work growers did post-cyclone around removing silt, crop protection and tree husbandry has literally been the difference between trees living and trees dying,” Adsett said.
“You either walk away from your entire livelihood or you get your shovel out and start shovelling shit out of rows.”
Not surprisingly, the cyclone-affected 2023 Hawke’s Bay apple crop was 33 per cent down on pre-season estimates.
“There’s no way we’ll have as much crop as we had in 2022, but it won’t be as bad as 2023,” said Adsett.
“It’s definitely not the nightmare it could’ve been and it feels like, when we talk about the crop, there’s a little bit of quiet positivity in the air.”
While the overall volume won’t be as high as in normal years, perfect conditions for pollination suggest the calibre of the apples will be excellent.
“So there’s two things there: we talk about the crop and we’re quietly positive that we’re about to have a cracker of a year, in terms of good quality and reasonable yields,” Adsett said.
“But, in terms of growers’ balance sheets and the amount of financial strain they’re under, that’s still not great and I think it will take a few years before growers are in a position of positive cash flow.
“But it could’ve been an absolute nightmare.”
That’s the broad brush perspective, though.
Puketapu orchards are coming back to life after Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Warren Buckland
Yes, there are reasons for optimism after a very difficult few months, but that’s always tempered by the knowledge that not everyone has emerged from the cyclone unscathed.
“It isn’t the nightmare it could’ve been, when we look at Hawke’s Bay as a region. But obviously for some growers that have lost part of orchards or whole orchards, they’re absolutely living that nightmare.”
She said there had been tree deaths. But those were “sporadic” and it would not be until the 2024 harvest that definitive details would emerge about tree health, how many orchardists had walked away and whether whole blocks needed to be pulled out and replanted.
Many of those blocks that were not doing well were already struggling due to the wet months that preceded Cyclone Gabrielle.
People had only to go for a drive to see that, good spring or not, there were plenty of challenges ahead for the industry, she said.
“EskValley, Pakowhai Road or Dartmoor, they’re still scenes to rival those of the most considerable construction zones: diggers, trucks and piles of debris everywhere.”
To assist some of the cyclone-affected growers who are still cleaning up and won’t see a crop until 2025, the Ministry for Primary Industries has provided $814,000 as part of an orchard regeneration programme being led by Adsett.
“It’s not a silver bullet, but it certainly helps take the pressure off some growers who need it,” she said.
Hamish Bidwell joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2022 and works out of the Hastings newsroom.
