Wet weather worries kumara growers
Extremely wet weather in Northland over the past month could spell disaster for New Zealand kumara growers with peak harvest approaching.
The bulk of New Zealand’s kumara crop is grown in the region, an estimated 1200 hectares planted with about 15 per cent harvested so far. The rest is harvested from March-April and the next four weeks were critical, Kaipara Kumara manager Anthony Blundell said.
‘‘It’s not all doom and gloom if it stops raining, but if it gets wetter than what it is now, we could run into a bit of trouble.
‘‘It’s crunch time now and as an industry only about 15 per cent harvested.’’
He said wet conditions caused the vegetable to rot and affected its long-term storage ability when it hit retailers later in the year.
‘‘The amount of rain we have had in late January, February, March to date is what we get from January-May to be honest.’’
Blundell described February weather as ‘‘a shocker’’.
‘‘Instead of getting 70-odd millimetres like we normally get, we got 300 I think.
‘‘For us, it needs to stop raining so we can maximise what we can harvest.
Fine weather was forecast in the region over the next week according to MetService’s latest 10 day forecast before rain returns.
If growers can get the harvest completed, the orange kumara crop would be slightly heavier, but red kumara would be lighter.
This is because the rain had seen the plants put more of their energy into growing foliage rather than the root. That would mean similar yields to last year where the crop was down by about 15 per cent. A poor harvest will also hit consumers in the pocket as demand outstripped supply. If it stopped raining, consumers would have kumara at $6-$8/kg rather than higher prices he said.
‘‘You feel pretty humble that kumara is really popular in New Zealand and there is a lot of ownership towards kumara... there’s no way we are comfortable with $10-$12/kg retail. ‘‘
Vegetable New Zealand chairman Andre de Bruin said the harvest was already wet. ‘‘We can’t do with any more rain otherwise it’s going to be even wetter and that would be an issue.’’
But the weather could just as easily turn fine and the industry could have a normal harvest, he said.