"UK: Crops destroyed by "once in a lifetime" storm"
At what should be a celebratory time of year for fruit growers, with the Pershore Plum Fayre set to take place on August Bank Holiday Monday, many are counting the cost after seeing much or even all of their crops wiped out.
The damage occurred when the hot summer to date was broken by a "once in a lifetime" hail storm that hit the Vale earlier this month, slicing into plums and apples leaving them battered and bruised.
Nicholas Dunsby, of family apple growing business Paul Dunsby and Sons, in Mount Pleasant, near Broadway, said the storm hit all 130 acres of their orchards and could cost them hundreds of thousands of pounds.
"It pretty much destroyed the entire crop," he said. "It left big cuts and marks in all the apples. We have orchards in four parishes, Hinton, Childswickham, Wickhamford and Aston Somerville and it hit the whole lot. The storm hit when we had just started harvesting apples, but the majority are harvested in September. Instead of selling what we harvest now we will sell them for juicing or cider, which is a much reduced price.
"It will have cost us a lot of money, hundreds of thousands. It couldn't have happened at a worse time because we have spent all the money growing them. But it was a once in a lifetime storm. The hail was very sharp and angular so cut into the apples."
Neighbouring farm, D G Print and Sons, also of Mount Pleasant, said they had lost a substantial amount on both apples and plums.
Julia Print said: "We have 12 acres and we rely on it. We are retired and it is our income. It ruined the whole crop. We have Victoria plums and they have gone rotten and the apples are damaged. They are not top quality now so you can't sell them to the supermarket. There is no recourse for us either, just loss, we don't get anything from anybody."
The storm also affected growers of vegetables.
Bal Padda, of Vicarage Nurseries, said some of his polytunnels had been damaged and this had led to some of his crop of strawberries being damaged.
Source: eveshamjournal.co.uk
