Extreme weather events that have struck Australia in recent years have brought five floods to Lee Etherington’s farm, leading to enormous losses of $500,000. The grower has been on his farm in the Hawkesbury region of NSW for close to two decades. There, he grows 1,600 finger lime trees and other native plants, with which he feeds his Wild Hibiscus Distilling Co. company.
“It’s been particularly bad this year,” Lee said. “There was a double one in March that wiped us out from early March to March 13 or 14, and the second one biggest one in more than 40 years in July. We have seven different varieties of finger limes and there are pink ones we use in the gin and green ones. But the pink limes ripen all at a once and have to be picked within a couple of weeks – and that coincided with a double flood.”
Every time it floods, Lee said he loses between $100,000 and $150,000 in lost production and they have to idle for a while. Also, in 2019, he was stressed the farm would be destroyed by fire as flames came within 600 meters of his property. When Covid hit, the exporting side of his business was cancelled overnight. Last year, he lost 30-40 per cent of the crop, adding up to $50,000 in losses.
Source: news.com.au