The apple and grape picking season is wrapping up in Hawke’s Bay, with apple growers reporting a bumper harvest while wineries have seen a relatively small crop of grapes of “fantastic quality”.
Hawke’s Bay grows about two-thirds of the country’s apples and is also a well-known wine region.
The picking season for both fruits started in February and has now concluded for most varieties.
John Loughlin, owner of Askerne Estate Winery, near Havelock North, said grape picking finished on his and his wife’s vineyard late last month.
“Grape growers, I think, have generally found that crops have been down,” he said, of the grape picking season in Hawke’s Bay.
“With grapes, the last two years have been overcast wet years and the buds probably haven’t been as fruitful.
“I suspect it will be true of pretty much everybody else - we have had a smaller volume but fantastic quality.”
However, he said it had still been a good harvest in terms of “lovely fruit” which would be used for the 2024 vintage.
Loughlin is a life member of Hawke’s Bay Winegrowers and chairman of multiple boards, including Hawke’s Bay apple company Rockit.
He is also a member of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Recovery Agency.
He said there was still a long recovery ahead for some wineries and horticulture companies hit hardest by last February’s cyclone.
He said, for example, a newly planted orchard took about seven years to reach full production, and some growers had decided not to return to certain sites wiped out by the floods.
“On some sites they have simply spread the silt out and grassed down and taken a view that the flood risk doesn’t justify long-term crops with heavy capital investment,” he said.
“But for some orchards it has been sensible to rebuild.”
He said as well as cyclone recovery, a big challenge for growers at present was reduced profit margins on exports.
“Both in horticulture and wine, I think the big challenge is that costs have been pushed up dramatically over the past few years, but [international] market prices haven’t.
“So, profit margins are a lot tighter than they used to be.”
He said global competition meant growers and wine makers could not always pass on higher costs to overseas markets.
Bumper apple harvest
Hawke’s Bay Fruitgrowers’ Association president Brydon Nisbet, whose own apple orchard in Puketapu was badly flooded in the cyclone, said the apple picking season had provided a welcome boost for many growers.
“It’s been a good season and there have been people who were affected pretty badly in the floods that got their silt cleaned out, and blocks restored, that have had crops again where the trees were still standing.
“I’m one of those people that managed to [restore] all my block and we got a crop.”
He said, of course, not all orchards had recovered where trees had been wiped out.
The quantity of apples picked in the Bay this season appeared to be the best in a few years, around where it was in 2019-2020.
NZ Apples and Pears has been contacted for an approximate figure.
“It has been great for the industry and great for the growers - to get in there and have a full season of cropping,” Nisbet said.
“The pack sheds are full and cool storage is at a premium because there was a big crop.
“So all in all it has been a great season for Hawke’s Bay which was well needed for the growers and well needed for the province.”
He said the apples had a good colour this year but the size seemed to be a little bit down on previous years, which could be the result of a wide range of factors.
Gary Hamilton-Irvine is a Hawke’s Bay-based reporter who covers a range of news topics including business, councils, breaking news and cyclone recovery. He formerly worked at News Corp Australia.