Fruit and vegetable producers in Australia are assessing losses following Cyclone Narelle, which affected production in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The Carnarvon area supplies fresh produce to domestic and export markets valued at almost $1.5 billion (US$990 million) annually.
The cyclone made landfall as a category two system in Carnarvon after impacting Exmouth as a category four system, where wind gusts reached around 200 kilometres per hour. Damage has been reported across multiple crops, with banana production among the most affected.
Banana grower Les Ball reported losses exceeding 80 per cent of his crop. "But it's bad enough to create quite a bit of havoc with the bananas," he said. A limited share of the crop is expected to be marketable, while the remainder is not suitable for sale.
As chair of the Sweeter Banana Co-Operative, which represents more than half of Carnarvon's banana growers, Ball indicated that damage is widespread. "I've spoken to a few growers … and there seems to be quite a bit of damage around the place," he said.
Growers are also facing recovery operations expected to take several weeks. The impact follows earlier weather-related disruptions affecting fruit production in Queensland, where growers have reported losses linked to the same weather system.
Market supply impacts are under review, with some industry participants noting potential pressure on availability. Ball said supply continuity is expected. "There'll be no lack of bananas in the shops, there'll be plenty of them there to go round," he said.
Production volumes are expected to remain lower over the next season. Ball indicated that output levels may recover in the following year. "The productivity of the bananas, that's definitely going to take a whack, but bananas aren't the only game up here, we're sort of lucky in the Gascoyne, there's a lot of crops we can grow, so we just sort of diversify a bit and keep moving on."
He added that growers are accustomed to managing weather risks. "The next year is going to be a bit light on, but after that we should be back into production again, and back to the happy days."
Source: ABC News
