Hawke's Bay growers trying to clear silt from their properties have gone from fighting the dust to fighting the mud, as rain is now hampering clean-up efforts. On Brydon Nisbet's Puketapu apple orchard, the rain that felt over the last 48 hours has turned dried out areas of silt back into muddy bogs. According to Nisbet, the bad weather was a set-back, as orchardists only had about a three week window to remove silt that was suffocating trees and vines.
Local machinery operator Cameron Young has been shifting silt on the Puketapu orchard and said it was a huge job, not helped by the bad weather that had set in. For apple and kiwifruit growers in flood impacted areas that were still planning on picking fruit this season, food safety inspections have been taking place on orchards. Brydon Nisbet, who is also the president of the Hawke's Bay Fruit Growers Association, said any fruit that has had direct contact with flood water would not be harvested.
Rnz.co.nz reports on the Ministry for Primary Industries' coordinator in Hawke's Bay, Steve Ham, saying orchard assessments were being industry led and would help provide assurances to both export markets and local consumers.
Bulk of Hawkes Bay fruit growers’ crops uninsured
The proposition of an immediate grant from the Government to save the apple trees in his Hawkes Bay orchard has been well received by Nisbet. He himself expects to get $2000 in funding per hectare to save his fruit trees, painstaking work that requires removing silt from the site to let roots breath.
He anticipates further government support to help clean up access routes and other infrastructure on the orchard. Nisbet isn’t alone in not having crop insurance and doesn’t know of anyone who expects cover for their fruit in this instance – many don’t even think it’s an option beyond hail damage.
Source: newsroom.co.nz