Good season for apples

He says it's been one of the best springs for many years and there was good rain around Christmas.

"All the crops are looking great, the colour is fantastic, size is good and that brings optimism for the growers - that's the part that's right," he says.

The second part of the equation is out of the hands of growers, he says.

Nisbet says the big issue is the returns that growers will get for their apples.

He says on top of the cost of dealing with the recovery, growers are facing the high cost of wages, compliance costs and rising on-orchard costs.

"So, the export prices need to be good. We have the dollar in our favour but we need to sell our crops for a really good price when the margins are in our favour, so we can not only pay for what we have done this season but also make a decent profit - and that is the hard part," he says.