2024–25 apple harvest exceeds expectations, says Apples and Pears NZ CEO
The 2024-25 season apple harvest has “well and truly exceeded expectations”, says Apples and Pears NZ chief executive Karen Morrish.
Brydon Nisbet, the president of Hawke's Bay Fruit Growers Federation, says the mood of growers in Hawke's Bay is quite upbeat because it's been a 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.
According to the most recent Rabobank Rural Confidence Survey, farmer confidence has inched higher, reaching its second highest reading in the last decade.
From 1 October, new livestock movement restrictions will be introduced in parts of Central Otago dealing with infected possums spreading bovine TB to livestock.
Phoebe Scherer, a technical manager from the Bay of Plenty, has won the 2025 Young Grower of the Year national title.
The Fencing Contractors Association of New Zealand (FCANZ) celebrated the best of the best at the 2025 Fencing Industry Awards, providing the opportunity to honour both rising talent and industry stalwarts.
Award-winning boutique cheese company, Cranky Goat Ltd has gone into voluntary liquidation.
As an independent review of the National Pest Management Plan for TB finds the goal of complete eradication by 2055 is still valide, feedback is being sought on how to finish the job.
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