NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

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.
Home / Sponsored Stories

Sponsored

Yummy Fruit

Storm affects look of fruit

2 Jan, 2020 11:00 AM
Photo / Supplied

Photo / Supplied

SPONSORED

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

October's hailstorm is seeing fruit on supermarket shelves that looks different - but is still tasty.

Not many people can compare a nectarine crop to a supermodel with a pimple – but Paul Paynter can.

He's talking about his nectarines, one of many stone fruit harvests disrupted by a violent, widespread hailstorm in Hawkes Bay in October.

Paynter, general manager of the Yummy Fruit Company, estimates that the national crop of nectarines will be down by 30 per cent this summer after the hailstorm.

But there's no need for panic buying as careful cosseting of the affected fruit has meant many tasty nectarines have still made it to supermarket shelves although, as Paynter says, they look a little different from normal.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"It's just a cosmetic thing," he says. "They look like they have little blemishes, little dents or round marks that have come from the hail. They look like they've been hit with very small meteors – which is exactly what happened.

"That's why it's a bit like a supermodel with a pimple – it's just an aesthetic adjustment; the model is still beautiful, even if she has a small blemish. The fruit still tastes really good because of the unseasonably warm weather we had earlier."

John Paynter (left) and Paul Paynter (right) walking through their Hawkes Bay Orchard. Photo / Supplied
John Paynter (left) and Paul Paynter (right) walking through their Hawkes Bay Orchard. Photo / Supplied

Supermarkets and fruit stores are now stocking the Yummy nectarines and Paynter says he wants to advise people not to shy away from the fruit because it looks a bit different: "They taste great and a lot of the fruit has recovered really well. Our thinking was if we didn't tell people what to expect, they might not pick it up and take it home.

"This way, we hope people will think, 'Oh yes, I heard about that' – and still enjoy the taste."

Peaches, apricots, cherries and plums were also affected but it is not clear yet by how much and, in the case of central Otago growers, the wet and wild recent weather there.

Paynter estimates that something like 70 per cent of Hawkes Bay stone fruit was affected, with about 30 per cent of that so badly damaged it couldn't be sold – and his best guess is that the entire national crop of stone fruit could be down in volume by 30 per cent.

Paynter says the hailstorm and the look of the fruit has also brought into focus the "ugly produce" syndrome and the vast amount of food that goes to waste around the world and in New Zealand.

Globally, an estimated third of all food (1.3 billion tonnes a year) is wasted. In New Zealand, charitable food re-distributor Kiwi Harvest have estimated 103,000 tonnes of food from commercial sources is wasted annually; 60 per cent of food going to landfill is edible – enough to feed between 50,000-80,000 people for a year, while Kiwi households waste an estimated $872m of food annually.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Love Food Hate Waste, advocates of reduced food waste, says New Zealanders throw away 157,389 tonnes of food a year - equivalent to 271 jumbo jets of food that has to go somewhere to rot, instead of being eaten, worth about $1.17 billion each year and which could feed the population of Dunedin for nearly three years.

In the US, which jettisons about 63 million tonnes of edible food a year, an article in the Washington Post earlier this year quoted advocates of the "ugly produce" movement calling for radically reducing this waste by cutting the price of fruits and vegetables that normally go uneaten because they look "too weird."

"We're not talking about rotten stuff, we're not talking about stuff that's beyond the pale.

We're talking about good, fresh food that is being wasted on a colossal scale," proclaims Tristram Stuart, author of Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal. He tells how, as a teen, he discovered a local farmer throwing away edible potatoes too misshapen for supermarkets.

Photo / Supplied
Photo / Supplied

"I think things are much better here," Paynter says. "New Zealanders are a pretty practical people and the fruit still looks good – and tastes great. In some parts of the world, like Asia, the beautiful produce element is important – people like to dwell on the beauty of the natural world and sometimes they buy something like an apple and like to look at it before they eat it. Here it's more about the taste."

Paynter also says Hawkes Bay growers will likely not rig up vast swathes of anti-hail netting: "It's too expensive. Our orchards cover 35 kilometres and it would cost a fortune. Usually, things like hailstorms only apply in a small area – you can have a hailstorm but the neighbour doesn't, for example.

"The strategy of using geography to minimise instances like that has worked well for many years; my family have been growing fruit here since 1904 and my father can remember 65 seasons back – and no one can recall a hailstorm like that one."

Save

    Share this article

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Sponsored Stories

Sponsored Stories

Behind the scenes of a wild weather event

07 Jul 09:52 PM
Sponsored Stories

Is your dog or cat hiding pain?

07 Jul 03:49 AM
Sponsored Stories

Outward Bound NZ: How a South Auckland teen ditched his phone and found confidence off the grid

07 Jul 01:24 AM
Sponsored Stories

What rising optimism means for you

06 Jul 10:59 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
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
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP