Bulk wine exports surpass packaged wine volumes
Data from February 2025 shows volumes of bulk wine exports exceeded packaged wine.
MPI has turned down a request from the horticulture sector to declare the recent hail and rainstorms, that decimated many orchards around the country and cost growers millions
of dollars in lost income, as an ‘adverse event’.
HortNZ chairman Barry O’Neil told Rural News that his organisation had written to Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor asking him to declare the storms an ‘adverse event’. However, HortNZ was told by MPI (Ministry for Primary Industries) that the classification of a medium scale adverse event is not required.
But O’Neill says HortNZ, Apples and Pears NZ and the Kiwifruit Growers organisation have again written to O’Connor, Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Stuart Nash, (who holds the economic development portfolio) asking them to reconsider the earlier decision.
MPI told Rural News that declaring an adverse event would not mean there would be any direct funding for affected growers and that all it would do is free up more funding for the Rural Support Trust (RST). This funding would help growers clean up orchards and assist them work out future options but does not compensate them for the loss of their crops.
MPI says funding is already available, but if the situation changes, then more would be made available to the RST.
O’Neil says he’s heard reports of cherry growers losing 80% or more of their crop, apple orchards devastated and that more than 2 million trays of kiwifruit have been lost.
He says crops are being grown in areas that are challenging with the changing climate. O’Neil says hail is not uncommon, but this time, more regions appear to have been hit than normal and it’s hard to mitigate that.
“Covered crop growing is very acceptable if it’s affordable for the individual grower. But even some of those covered structures have been damaged by the hail, so it’s not absolutely bullet proof,” he told Rural News.
“I think the insurance companies will become more risk adverse unfortunately and premiums will go up. Unless growers do everything they can do to minimise the impacts – such as covering their crops – I think it’s going to be very difficult in future to get reasonably priced insurance.”
O’Neil believes that this latest event will encourage more orchardists to cover their crops despite the capital cost. He also points out that some of the hail and rain was very localised.
“A few years ago, my kiwifruit orchard at Kerikeri got hit by hail and I lost about 27% of my crop. My neighbour, who has a vineyard, didn’t get any hail at all and he was only 100 yards away – so that shows how localised it can be.”
Rural News understands various horticulture leaders were planning to meet with O’Connor, Robertson, Nash and some other members of the Labour caucus in Nelson – during the party’s annual caucus retreat held in the region last week – to discuss the issue of government assistance.
Recent rain has offered respite for some from the ongoing drought.
New Zealand's TBfree programme has made great progress in reducing the impact of the disease on livestock herds, but there’s still a long way to go, according to Beef+Lamb NZ.
With much of the North Island experiencing drought this summer and climate change projected to bring drier and hotter conditions, securing New Zealand’s freshwater resilience is vital, according to state-owned GNS Science.
OPINION: Otago farmer and NZ First MP Mark Patterson is humble about the role that he’s played in mandating government agencies to use wool wherever possible in new and refurbished buildings.
For Wonky Box co-founder Angus Simms, the decision to open the service to those in rural areas is a personal one.
The golden age of orcharding in West Auckland was recently celebrated at the launch of a book which tells the story of its rise, then retreat in the face of industry change and urban expansion.
OPINION: The appendage swinging contest between the US and China continues, with China hitting back with a new rate of…
OPINION: The irony of President Trump’s tariff obsession is that the worst damage may be done to his own people.