Bop kiwifruit orchardists assess hail damage

Kiwifruit marketer Zespri is waiting to find out how much of the current harvest has been damaged by two unseasonal hail storms in the past 24 hours before deciding whether to leave excess fruit on the vines this season.

The company's growers were set to hold back the equivalent of 3.6 million kilograms of fruit, or a million trays, to prop up prices in recession-hit markets this season.

They were given quotas for dumping after an increase of between 3 per cent and 8 per cent of the nation's kiwifruit crop.

Most Bay of Plenty orchards escaped the initial hail storm which hit coastal areas yesterday, but some orchards closer to Te Puke were hit by a second storm late in the day.

Zespri corporate and grower services director Carol Ward said today that crop management programme had been put on hold until the extent of the damage was known.

A Te Puke grower said that where crops were hit, "it was like someone getting a shotgun and just firing it into all of the canopy".

Kiwifruit Growers chairman Peter Ombler said some growers might have to wait a day or two to gauge the extent of the impact, because fruit which was not split by hail could still be badly bruised.

About 40 per cent of the green crop and 70 per cent of the gold crop had been harvested when the storms hit.

Mr Ombler said some growers would have access to industry insurance for hail damage.

- NZPA