Monavale Organic Blueberries, located on the Moanatuatua Plains near Cambridge, alleges to be New Zealand's largest certified organic blueberry grower. Now, the blueberry growers said in an interview: "On the morning of Friday October 7, we had the worst frost in the three-generation history of our orchard that has destroyed approximately 90% of our crop. Temperatures plummeted to -5C on our orchard." Over 90% of their crop was destroyed.
Monavale Organic Blueberries says it had expected to harvest 300 tons of berries between late this month into May next year. "Blueberries, unlike some other fruit, only flower and fruit once per year, so we won’t get another chance to produce a crop for another 12 months. We flew two helicopters as frost protection, but the weather event was so severe that the helicopters couldn’t save the crop."
Source: 1news.co.nz
