Rain ruins half of grower’s cherry crop
Rain has again ruined much of Nelson’s cherry crop but has not put the Thomas brothers off growing the fruit.
Heavy rain before Christmas and persistent showers since throughout the top of the south caused a lot of cherries to split, making them unfit for sale.
Growers in Marlborough, a major area for cherries, lost about 20 per cent of their fruit, with some resorting to the costly use of helicopters to keep it dry.
But Fred Thomas who, with his brother, Bill, has 2.5 hectares planted among their kiwifruit and apple orchard at Riwaka, said they had fared even worse, losing 50 per cent of their crop to the rain. ‘‘It wasn’t that flash. ‘‘We had splits on most varieties. We still managed some reasonable picks but it was a lot more costly to go through and sort the split cherries.’’
Much of it was sold as class 2 fruit for half the normal price, he said.
It came on top of an already later and lighter crop which would mean the harvest would be just half the almost 10 tonnes picked last year, he said.
Worst affected was the early ripening variety earlise, although having another 10 varieties producing throughout the season meant it had not been a total disaster, Mr Thomas said.
‘‘If we had just two or three varieties it would have been awkward.’’
The lower crop meant plans to sell cherries in Wellington did not proceed and only small quantities made it on to the Nelson and Christchurch markets, he said.
‘‘We managed to keep our (roadside) stall going most of the time.’’
They had held their price for class 1 fruit at $17.50 per kilogram, even though others had charged up to $22-$23.
Despite the disappointing season, Mr Thomas said cherries were definitely worth perservering with. With Nelson traditionally wetter than Marlborough, ‘‘we’ve always known that the weather will be our biggest issue’’, but they enjoyed the challenge, he said.