The hail which tore across Tasman horticultural land was three times as bad as the storm which hit Riwaka last November, says Simon Easton. The Motueka Fruit Growers Association chairman said his family lost around a third of their orchard's production in last Wednesday's hail storms. The impact would flow through to the local economy, he said. Growers would this week be assessing  the damage and deciding which blocks could still be picked for export and which would be abandoned. We are looking at the good and the bad fruit. If the damage is too high the cost of getting it into the box will be too high." Growers had to make the tough calls now so they could move forward, he said. "You can't make the call if you don't have a crack at the fruit now." Easton said the  angle and velocity of the hail storms meant the damage was significant on affected blocks. Growers aiming to produce fruit on less damaged trees would have to extensively summer prune so the lower fruit  could colour. There was likely to be no change to orchardist's staffing because of the level of extra work required to get some of the fruit to class one export grade. Easton said the impact of  the hail would flow through to the local economy mid next year when the fruit losses were reflected in growers' returns. "But it's going to be worse than last year,"  he predicted. He encouraged affected growers to talk to  fellow orchardists. "We try to help each other mentally more than anything." Growers had come off a good season so most were currently okay financially, he said. "But it's still going to be a financial blow and insurance will be on a case by case basis. "The hard decision is when you have a 50 to 60 per cent loss on  commodity fruit— do you thin it or walk away? "If it's high value fruit you are more inclined to have a crack." Easton said the region's agricultural consultants were  well placed to help  growers plan their way forward. He said the  region's apple crop had looked "beautiful" before the hail storms. "Everyone had a really good crop —  it was heavy with no disease." Pipfruit NZ business development manager Gary Jones said at this stage crop estimates from Tasman were similar to last year's. The region's estimated gross crop last year was140,000 tonnes and it exported 84,000 tonnes. This year's gross estimate was 139,000 tonnes and the export crop had been estimated at 90,000 tonnes. Figures around the loss to last week's hail would  be known this week, but at this stage he did not expect the production figures to be too different to last season. "The damage is largely localised and there is still a lot of fruit out there." Jones said  the global fruit market  looked positive for New Zealand  pipfruit in the coming season. "The US crop is down significantly on last year, Europe and China are down slightly and the exchange rate has begun to slide. Asia's now taking half the crop whereas nine years ago it took 12 per cent." Jones said New Zealand could not supply all of  Asia's apple needs. Asia's  GDP and middle class continued to grow and with it the desire  to eat more apples, which  were viewed as a high-end  fruit. "And New Zealand sits in that space." Source - www.stuff.co.nz