Yesterday, fruit growers in the Goulburn Valley had to watch their apple and pear crops being destroyed by a sudden burst of hail. The storm, which arrived in the afternoon, struck young fruit crops across a large area of northern Victoria.
Fruit Growers Victoria spokesman Michael Crisera has been going around to inspect the damage. "Probably 50 per cent of the region has been hit to varying degrees, everywhere from Cobram, Ardmona, parts of Tatura, Shepparton and Shepparton East. Most of it was what we call peppercorn-sized hail, but there are some reports of larger hail around 5mm in size as well.”
Crisera has called on governments to provide assistance to those growers who have lost crops. The hail storm only compounds what has already been a difficult year for orchardists in the Goulburn Valley, a region which typically grows almost a third of Australia's apple crop and 80 per cent of Australia's pears.
Fruit Growers Victoria, an industry organisation that represents the many of the affected growers, believes that many growers in the region will need financial assistance to survive.
"A lot of our growers are really in survival mode, where they really want to survive the next 12 to 18 months," Crisera said, adding that retailers, including the major supermarket chains, could help by relaxing standards on fruit imperfections or by selling special hail-damaged lines of fruit.
Source: abc.net.au