Kiwifruit growers endured Cyclone Vaianu without major damage

Kiwifruit growers have come through Cyclone Vaianu with minimal damage reported. Photo / 123rf

By RNZ

Kiwifruit growers have come through Cyclone Vaianu relatively unscathed.

It has been less than 24 hours since strong wind and heavy rain lashed the North Island.

Colin Bond from Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated told RNZ’s Checkpoint that he had not heard of growers having much damage as a result.

One in the Bay of Plenty had lost some part of their crop, while some in Northland, Coromandel, Gisborne, and Hawke’s Bay had also sustained some minor damage.

Bond hoped that the forecasted record crop still eventuated.

But he told Checkpoint that the biggest concern was wet feet – where the soil is saturated for too long – or skin rub from the wind.

“So as the fruit moves on the vine – rubbing against each other – and then making it difficult for that fruit to be sold as an export quality piece of fruit,” he said.

Bond said it was possible that some of the fruit would no longer be top-grade.

“The challenge will be after this wind event, just to make sure that growers can still maximise their pack-outs, but we’ll have a process through our post-harvest operators to make sure only the very best fruit gets to market.”

Bond said five million trays of the red variety had been packed and shipped, while the gold fruitwas about 40% of the way through, and the green was about 10%.

- RNZ