Apple horror in Hawke's Bay

Nearly half of Hawke's Bay's apple orchards have been damaged, some critically by cyclone Gabrielle.

This has prompted the Apples and Pears NZ to write to government ministers asking for special help to get one of the biggest industries and employers in the Bay back on its feet again.

Chair of Apple and Pears NZ Richard Punter told Rural News that there are 8,400 hectares planted in apples in Hawke's Bay and 47% of that land has been damaged. He says that just leaves 53% of the remaining land, or 4,400 hectares, that can be harvested in the normal way.

Punter estimates that there are 150 pipfruit growers in the region and 80 of these are affected by the cyclone.

He says the huge numbers they have come up with are very accurate because they wanted to give government ministers quality information on which to base decisions.

Punter told Rural News they used a combination of topographical and satellite imagery and verified this by sending experts onto some orchards to make sure the numbers stacked up.

"We came up with three categories," he explains.

"Category one was destroyed - nothing there - the orchard has gone and huge difficulty if at all to reinstate the land and potentially people could just walk away," Punter explains.

"Category two are those orchards that have been completely submerged and/orhave deep silt and there is significant tree death in those blocks. The general wisdom is that those category two blocks are not viable for any development as there is not crop there to harvest. These two categories may come to 25% of the 47%," he says.

Punter says the remainder of the damaged crops referred to as category three consist of orchards that are still workable but might have had water through them. He says that is a problem because apples that have been underwater won't store and will rot. He says there is also a problem with tree deaths caused by water and silt lying about the trees.

Punter told Rural News that it's still early to get an accurate estimate of what impact cyclone Gabrielle will have on apple export returns from Hakwe's Bay. This he says because they are still unsure about what actual varieties of apples are affected because some are worth more than others.

"So, as you can see there is still quite a big job ahead," he says.