Fruit season off to a good start

Leonie Baumann picks boysenberries at Hanna Berry Farm in Hastings. Photo / Warren Buckland

Pickers are having to keep up with demand at Hanna Berry Farm with buyers snapping up fresh punnets.

The farm near Havelock North has grown boysenberries since 1980, supplying Wattie's and ice-cream maker Rush Munro, and started gate sales at the Longlands Rd East orchard 10 years ago.

Co-owner Shelley Hanna said the season was one week later than last year and demand "simply great".

"The minute we opened the gate they've been flooding in," she said.

"We had a wonderful spring because we had enough frosts and we had enough rain, in the end."

From now on she is seeking nothing but blue skies.

"You can't pick in the rain because the berry will go mouldy in the punnet. We don't want any rain interruptions because then you get your crop off and everyone is happy with berries for Christmas."

All summerfruit is ripening well thanks to the frost-free spring, Hawke's Bay Fruitgrowers' Association summerfruit chairman Bryan Fulford said.

He grows cherries, peaches, plums and nectarines and said so far his summerfruit was one day ahead of last year and it was looking like it would be a very good season.

"They are going extremely well in the meantime," he said.

Demand for cherries was high so prices good, with little coming from the South Island, and the only downside to the summerfruit season so far was isolated bouts of hail last month.

"We actually managed to miss it all but there was the odd one that had a bit of damage."

Last season looked like hail would cause damage to apples but because the hail was early many scars managed to heal enough for it to not be significant for the region's crop.

This year's apple harvest is again on track to be a record yield thanks to fresh plantings coming on stream.

Pipfruit New Zealand business development manager Gary Jones said the industry was on track to grow 8 per cent more fruit than last season during the autumn harvest, thanks to new plantings and favourable weather in Hawke's Bay.

"It was a very good spring with good flower and a strong fruit drop, which means the trees have their optimum fruit load early."