New Zealand vegetable growers are hoping there will be a period of drier weather to ensure they can keep up with planting programs. According to the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), the official arrival of El Niño this week, which brings more frequent, dry westerly winds, but also heightens the risk of drought.
LeaderBrand has produce farms right across the country and its chief executive Richard Burke said it was welcome relief after lots of rain: "Frankly, we're pretty excited to get into that pattern, we thought we were in it. We had a really dry August, 17ml of rain for us, which is the driest month we've had in 18 months. So we thought it had started, we had all our irrigators out, but we just had 160ml of rain so I guess for us the drought started again today. … The biggest thing that we've seen is an inability to keep planting programs up to date.”
NIWA said the country would see dramatic temperature swings over the next three months, with periods of unseasonable warmth followed by sharp cold southerlies.
Source: rnz.co.nz
