Bumper year for Nelson fruitgrowers

Press, 25 May 1984, Page 2

Bumper year for Nelson fruitgrowers

Nelson reporter

Nelson orchardists and kiwifruit growers will remember 1984 as a very good year.

An absence of strong winds and hailstorms, rain when it was needed, plenty of sunshine, and excellent weather leading up to and during picking have meant a record pip-fruit crop for the district and a kiwifruit crop that has exceeded expectations. The only low cloud on the horizon has been a couple of severe frosts earlier this week that could have affected some 70,000 trays of kiwifruit still on the vines.

The regional manager of the New Zealand Apple and Pear Marketing Board, Mr A. J. Masters, this week reported an estimated 2.9 million cartons of apples and pears (only 87,000 of them pears) would be exported from Nelson this season.

This compares with the previous record shipment of 2.3 million cartons in 1980.

The over-all crop, including that for domestic consumption, is of record proportions; 4.8 million cartons compared with the previous record of 4.5 million cartons in 1981. Of the 1.9 million cartons retained for domestic use, 1.6 million of these will be processed at the board’s cannery at Stoke and the remaining 300,000 cartons will be released to retailers.

The biggest variety increases have been in Granny Smiths which have risen from 600,000 cartons in 1980 to 900,000 this year, and Red Delicious, 500,000 cartons this year compared with 300,000 in 1980. Gala, Royal Gala, Braeburn and Cox’s Orange crop production was also higher.

The board has chartered six more vessels this year. Fifteen have already sailed and the last will leave during the first week of June. The fruit are destined, mainly, for the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, and Europe. Some 247,000 cartons will go to Saudi Arabia, 300,000 to North America and 65,000 to South-East Asia.

The climatic conditions which cheered orchardists have also worked wonders on the kiwifruit so that before the frosts of this week, the experts had had to raise their estimates from about 280,000 travs to 800,000.

According to a Ministry of Agriculture field officer, Mr N. Illingworth, those growers in production this year will pack about 90 per cent of their crops for export.

"This percentage is what can be expected in a vintage year,” he said. Nearly all the fruit was from three to six-year vines and over. About 750 ha to 800 ha of the IOOOha now planted in the district would be producing this year, he said. It is estimated that within five years 1500 ha of Nelson district land will be planted in kiwifruit.

Mr Illingworth hopes that the 70.000 trays of fruit still on the vines and possibly affected by this week’s frosts, might not be damaged beyond export standards. Samples of the fruit would be tested by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research next week.

The crop will be exported in two shipments. The Baltic Star is due at Port Nelson on May 28 to load for European markets and the Reefer Dragon, due on June 3, will take fruit to Japan. Tobacco growers, who took advantage of the Government’s restructuring plan in 1981 and gave away some of their tobacco licences in favour of kiwifruit, will have got little return from their new crop this year. Many would not have had vines in production yet.

They have, however, had a reasonably good season, according to Mr Gerald Hunt, the president of the Tobacco Growers Federation. It had not been a record season, crop weight would probably be a little down on the quota of 1.9 million kilograms of leaf, but the quality was higher this year, he said.