Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Premium
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

'Won't go down as a vintage year': $105M loss for apple growers?

By Gary Hamilton-Irvine
Hawkes Bay Today·
24 May, 2022 02:28 AM2 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Covid has now impacted three consecutive apple harvests in Hawke's Bay. Photo / NZME

Covid has now impacted three consecutive apple harvests in Hawke's Bay. Photo / NZME

The apple-picking season has come to an end in Hawke's Bay and a leading group within the industry says growers are on track to lose an estimated $105 million in export earnings - following another tough season.

Hawke's Bay grows the most apples by far of any region across the country and the picking season traditionally runs from February to April.

Since the arrival of Covid, finding enough pickers and packhouse workers has proved a tough challenge for orchards, who have not been able to rely on backpackers and travellers to boost their workforce.

The Government-backed RSE worker scheme has helped but growers have still struggled to get all their apples picked.

New Zealand Apples and Pears (NZAPI), which represents pipfruit growers across the country, has released figures on how the industry has performed this season.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

In January, the apple and pear crop was predicted to reach the equivalent of 23.2 million export boxes.

"That forecast has now been adjusted to be approximately 20.3 million boxes, representing an estimated reduction in export earnings of $105 million," NZAPI said.

Hawke's Bay apple grower Leon Stallard says it has been another challenging harvest. Photo / NZME
Hawke's Bay apple grower Leon Stallard says it has been another challenging harvest. Photo / NZME

NZAPI CEO Terry Meikle said a perfect storm of adverse weather events as well as major labour shortages had affected the result.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Many growers in Hawke's Bay are still busy packing apples for export, meaning the final amount of export earnings won't be known for a while yet.

NZ Fruitgrowers Federation director Leon Stallard, from Hawke's Bay, said it hadn't been "the easiest of harvests" for a combination of reasons.

Discover more

Eric Speakman racing the clock on do-or-die European mission

24 May 01:00 AM
New Zealand

Costly road to recovery: Roading bill after three-day storm could top $50 million

24 May 02:00 AM
New Zealand

Omicron outbreak: 8435 new cases, 15 virus-related deaths; how to download new vaccine pass

24 May 01:25 AM

"The weather didn't help us early season and the rain at the end of March during the harvest [also impacted us].

"So it won't go down as a vintage year."

He said finding enough workers had also been difficult.

He said on his own orchard, Claremont Trust, they were fortunate to get all their apples picked, but yields were down.

"There were less [apples] on the trees. And equally just trying to get them off with the labour that we had was difficult."

He said growers were hopeful next year would prove to be somewhat of a return to normality.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"That is the only way you can stay in business is you have to be an optimist."

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay

Hawkes Bay Today

'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues

Premium
Hawkes Bay Today

Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay
Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay

Some roads remained blocked.

17 Jul 06:02 AM
'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues
Hawkes Bay Today

'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues

17 Jul 04:06 AM
Premium
Premium
Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa
Hawkes Bay Today

Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa

17 Jul 04:00 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP