AU: Bacchus Marsh fruit growers in turmoil after Christmas storm
Producers whose properties line the town’s Avenue of Honour suffered significant damage, with Jeff Jones Produce losing $100,000 of stock. Owner Glenda Jones said the orchard looked like a “bomb site”, with nearly every piece of fruit looking like it had been “shot by a gun”. Orchard manager Graham Amos was on the premises when the storm hit on Christmas Day. He said hail the size of cricket balls barraged the farm relentlessly for 10 minutes, bouncing metres off the ground.
Mrs Jones said the orchard was unable to recover any of the damage caused by the storm. After years of bad weather, she said the business “couldn’t take much more”. “It’s just the risk of primary production. You always live in hope you’ll have one of those lucky, good years without much weather damage, but those good years are getting further and further apart.” She said that last year 60 per cent of the orchard’s stone fruit crop was lost to excessive rain. The previous 10 years had resulted in drought-affected crops. Mrs Jones said the most heartbreaking consequence was that the orchard’s brand had been damaged.
“(The damage) will affect us drastically because we’re going to have to supplement our stock from markets now. What we grow is really old-fashioned and people travel to buy fruit from here; you just don’t get it in supermarkets. “It’s no different to someone working for six months, thinking they’re going to get paid and then they don’t.” Nick Dellios, owner of Dellios Apples, said the damage was severe. Given the past decade was marked by volatile weather, he recommended orchardists put in place a protection plan. He said hail nets would have protected Bacchus Marsh’s orchards from the most recent storm damage. Mr Dellios said the nets were expensive, at about $50,000 a hectare, but planning permits imposed by other municipalities were not required by Moorabool Council. He said more and more fruit farmers were erecting the nets, which also protected fruit from sunburn.
Source: thecourier.com.au