In Motueka, New Zealand, a sudden heavy hailstorm has come at a terrible time for kiwifruit growers. A Caltex Motueka employee said the heavy hailstorm started at about 3.15pm on Friday 14 Oct., and lasted for "a good 20 minutes".
It's still too early to tell how apple orchards will fare but it's not looking promising for kiwifruit growers still assessing the damage from another hailstorm which hit the region just last week.
Motueka Fruit Growers Association chairman, Simon Easton, said growers would be impacted as the storm was where "it's kiwifruit country".
It looked like Motueka and part of Redwoods Valley had been badly hit, he said, with hail "white, thick on the ground and pea sized".
As for the other fruit growers, Easton said it could come to nothing, or it could be "a bloody disaster".
"Two major storms this early is very unusual."
Mainland Kiwi Growers Entity director, Evan Heywood, who grows apples and kiwifruit in the Motueka area, said it was unlikely the hail had done much damage to the kiwifruit.
"What's happened is the hail's gone through the leaves and shredded the leaves a little bit and broken some shoots as well. It probably won't have done a lot of damage to the fruit."
He said it was too early to tell how the apples would be affected.
"You won't know until the fruit grows a bit."
Source - http://www.freshplaza.com
