A hail storm affecting kiwi crops in New Zealand’s Pongakawa and Maketu areas seems not to have done a great deal of damage. Kiwi marketing organization Zespri said damage was confined to specific areas and that there was not much to report.
“The damage has been very localized,” said Zespri communications spokesperson Rachel Lynch. “There was an isolated hail storm in Bay of Plenty on Monday night. Our growers have 72 hours to register damage claims with us and, today, we’ve received six notifications of damage.”
Initially the extent of the damage was unknown, but now Zespri expects few further claims. The New Zealand kiwi industry will be relieved at the good news, as growers have been dealing with containing the threat of the Psa virus and bolstering kiwi production again. In recent years a number of Bay of Plenty kiwi crops have been compromised or destroyed because of the virus, which is being managed by authorities and the industry.
Horticulture New Zealand spokesperson Leigh Catley said that there have been ‘occasional bursts of strange weather’ this season for New Zealand growers to contend with. “It’s been a very wet spring to date, and very cold,” she added. “Because it’s been wet we’ve had plenty of rain though, and that means we go into the summer months with readily available water.”
Only a couple of places had had too much water according to Ms Catley, and water for vegetables until the end of the year is becoming available.
For more information
Visit the Zespri website to read any further updates - www.zespri.com
Zespri Kiwi
Phone: +64-7-572-7600
E-mail: contactzespri@zespri.com