Kiwifruit Hayward green on tree

Early estimates of the impact of last week’s Bay of Plenty hail storms on New Zealand’s kiwifruit crop put the damage at about 2.5m trays.

Damage from the hail, which hit eastern parts of New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty Monday last week, has taken time to assess as bruising on fruit doesn’t show up for several days.

The green Hayward variety was the hardest hit, according to national kiwifruit marketer Zespri’s corporate and grower services director Carol Ward.

Most of the early-harvesting gold variety had already been picked, but about half the green crop remained on vines.

Ms Ward said estimates put losses at 2.4m trays of green kiwifruit and 260,000 trays of gold, reported Radio New Zealand.

That represents about 3 per cent of the total green kiwifruit crop, and less than 1 per cent of the gold crop. Ms Ward said the damage will have no affect on supply or exports.

Zespri suspended crop management programmes last week following the hail. The 2.5m tray crop loss roughly mirrors what Zespri earlier said needed to be removed from export stocks to maintain prices on the back of a depressed market and a bumper crop.

Crop loss figures will be further refined in the coming fortnight as more orchards are assessed.