Kiwifruit Hayward green on tree

Nature may have taken care of New Zealand’s oversupply of kiwifruit this season, after two hail storms ripped through orchards in the country’s Bay of Plenty region yesterday.

National kiwifruit marketer Zespri has told growers to hold back on plans to dump 1m cartons of fruit (3,600 tonnes) until an assessment of the damage has been made.

Industry sources told Fruitnet Zespri was holding an emergency meeting today in response to the hailstorms.

The majority of Bay of Plenty orchards avoided damage from the first hailstorm, but the second storm later in the day hit orchards near Te Puke in the Bay’s west, reported the New Zealand Herald.

“It was like someone getting a shotgun and just firing it into all of the canopy,” said one Te Puke grower, describing the hail.

The damage assessment may take several days, according to Kiwifruit Growers chairman Peter Ombler, because fruit not split by the hail could still be bruised.

The timing of the hail missed much of the crop – 40 per cent of the Hayward green variety has already been harvested, along with 70 per cent of the Hort16a gold variety.