“Growers have had to deal with challenges going back to last spring, with conditions that were wet and warm right through spring and the summer.
“Our crop monitoring team were seeing much higher numbers of pests during summer and the wet conditions were often hampering grower efforts to effectively mitigate some of these pest pressures.”
Mr Albers said Cyclone Gabrielle certainly made its presence felt for a lot of growers.
“We saw a mix of orchard and tree damage ranging from absolutely devastating to relatively minor. Perhaps the only saving grace was that this event was not during the main harvest season.”
The weather since Gabrielle had proved to be the biggest challenge, he said.
“That has definitely had an impact on fruit quality, in-orchard conditions, tree health and grower wellbeing.
“That said, I continue to be amazed at the resilience of the growers and their determination to get fruit harvested despite the conditions.
“It’s been nothing short of amazing and it’s definitely been a huge boost to ensuring continuity of supply which is all important for retailers and export customers.”
Getting fruit to market had also been a challenge, he said.
“I also take my hat off to the transport service providers who have had to deal with a ton of road closures, detours and treacherous driving conditions.”
Mr Albers said the Satsuma mandarin season was coming to a close, after a late April start.
“Overall fruit quality has been OK, but we have seen higher incidences of decay, and being a soft-skinned product, this can be problematic for good shelf life.”
Lime harvesting continues and Mr Albers said the cooler weather caused limes to lose their vibrant green colour, although juice content did increase.
“Nothing wrong with a yellow lime if you want them for juice,” he said, “and now is the best time for that.”
Lemons got under way a little bit later than usual, he said.
“A lack of cool autumn nights has delayed the colour change from green to yellow.
“That warmer, wetter weather also meant that fruit have continued to size on the tree and that’s provided some challenges, especially in the main export markets where a medium- sized fruit is preferred.
“Despite that, good volumes have been exported to Japan, the US, China and a few other markets. Japan and the US take most of the export fruit.”
Mr Albers said the Gisborne Navel orange season was just getting under way now, although fruit has been harvested since early June.
“Gisborne Navels are famous for their flavour and they are a welcome addition to supermarket shelves at this time of year.
“This year the overall Navel crop looks a little lighter than last year, so we are expecting good demand and stable prices.”
Navels will normally run through until December and after that the NZ Valencia orange will kick into gear.
“Grapefruit is one of the lesser known Gisborne citrus varieties, but with stable supply and demand, it’s still part of the overall citrus offering.”
Harvesting of these has been under way for over a month.
“So the overall citrus season marches on, with growers making the most of the recent finer weather and getting stuck into harvesting.”
Crops yet to come include Afourer and Encore mandarins, tangelos — “which have an almost cult-like following” — and Valencia oranges.”
