Warning on large-scale pipfruit plantings

Press, 3 September 1982, Page 19

Warning on large-scale pipfruit plantings

The profitability of new pipfruit plantings in South Canterbury and Mid-Canter-bury had been insufficiently researched and could result in over-production in five years time, Mr G. P. Ward, Canterbury Director of the New Zealand Fruitgrowers’ Federation said this week. This could bring a lowering of returns for all Canterbury suppliers to the Apple and Pear Marketing Board because of the nature of the single-desk marketing system, Mr Ward told the Federation's Canterbury provincial conference.

Mr Ward said he viewed with alarm the long-scale pipfruit plantings which have been made or projected, especially those in South Canterbury and Mid-Canterbury, which were far from the board’s Kaiapoi depot and the designated export port of Lyttelton.

One of the weaknesses of a co-operative system was that the weak brought down the strong. “We have no say in what a future board supplier plants, and yet his produce has to be marketed through our organisation, the board. “Established growers can only react by putting their orchards in the best shape so they could better withstand the effect of increased production in the not-too-distant future.”

Mr Ward said he believed that as soon as there was an oversupply of pipfruit in Canterbury, the grower who

supplied the board was in a weak position, especially those growers who supplied their total crop to the board. “We should be growing what the board wants; there is no future in sending in Golden Delicious and Sturmers and other low-paid varieties on a continuing basis. “Trees of these varieties should be progressively hauled out and replantings made or alternativelygrafted over to more wanted varieties.

“We must concentrate on sending only fancy grade fruit of the higher paid varieties to the board.” Mr Ward said the outlook for stonefruit production in Canterbury was bright. In the second year of exporting, growers had lifted the quantity exported to 15,000 trays. The possibility of significantly increasing exports was limited by the present cropping varieties, but in three to four years the later varieties of nectarines and peaches now being planted should dramatically increase the export potential. In a report from the Canterbury new varieties committee., the chairman, Mr A. G. Malcolm, said the potential for growth in stonefruit appeared to be in the late and mid-season varieties for export. Mr Malcolm said Canterbury needed something like the enthusiasm that the kiwifruit boom had generated in northern districts.

Although kiwifruit was unlikely to succeed as a commercial crop in Canterbury because of the climate, the production of late peaches and nectarines had potential. “The results of this past season’s exports confirm that market demand and the prices received justify considerable optimism. It appears that the later in the stonefruit season we export, the higher the export prices.”

Mr Malcolm said the net returns to growers for nectarines nearly doubled from mid-January to March. “On this past season’s prices for late nectarines, it would appear that Canterbury has at last found a crop that matches or exceeds the financial returns of kiwifruit growers in the Bay of Plenty.

"Stonefruit exporters seem confident of an increasing demand for our product overseas in the future. The only limiting factor may be freight costs to distant markets.” Mr Malcolm said pip and stonefruit growers should consider new or increased plantings of peaches and nectarines.

Mr J. H. Lakeman (Loburn) issued a word of caution when comparing returns from kiwifruit with those from exports of stonefruit. Wholesale plantings of stonefruit could result in a disaster, and stonefruit did not compare with kiwifruit in keeping qualities.