The New South Wales Department of Primary Industries is still calling for those who experienced damage in last week’s hail storm, affecting the Coffs Harbour Coast and Corindi areas, to provide information and estimates for damages. The blueberry crop which is most prominent in the area, had produced fruit, and harvesting commenced days before the storm, but had not been finished by the time the hail hit. OzGroup Blueberry Packing facility may have lost as much as 80% of its crop when the large hail stones hit on Thursday.
Other than to blueberry crops the hail damage was confined to isolated patches in the area, according to Lindsay Transport’s Shane Della, who works in logistics for the growers in the area. “At this stage everybody’s looking and assessing,” “The volume of the hail seemed to be concentrated to the north. Most of the damage seems to be to infrastructure. The crops won’t survive without it.”
There seemed to be only a small number of avocado crops affected in the area, and the trees were only flowering, so it will not be known how much next year’s crop will be affected yet, Mr Della said. There is still no word on the impact on the area's number Macadamia crop, which had begun flowering.
The storm looks to have wiped out around 10% of the NSW blueberry crop, but Mr Della said that growers are still assessing, and damage according to them could be between 10% and 20% of the crop. Raspberries, protected cropping, bananas and sugar cane may also have been affected. Damage is already estimated to be in the order of tens of millions of dollars, according to an updated statement from the DPI.
Those growers affected by the storms can access a resilience program to deal with welfare and social assistance. “The DPI resilience program will be asked to assist with any cases of personal distress and welfare so that people can be directed to specialist services should this be necessary,” a spokesperson said.
For more information and updates, or to access the resilience program visit the DPI website: www.dpi.nsw.gov.au