The apple harvest started back in March for Howard Hansen of Hansen Orchards in Tasmania, volumes will be down this season due to a severe hail event in the Huon Valley in December last year.
“We are a bit quieter than we would normally be due the hail last year which destroyed a whole orchard, we would normally have 3000 bins from there but this season we will have nothing. Packouts will be slightly down from the other sites as the whole area was affected, but just with minor hail storms.”
Howard is obviously unhappy about the hail storm but says that his family has been in the Huon Valley since 1944 and never suffered such a loss in all that time so they have been very lucky. The apples from the badly affected property are being shaken off the trees and onto the ground as there is not enough demand for them to be sold in Tasmania as juice.
“We started harvesting Galas in early March, followed by Golden Delicious, Jazz, Granny Smiths and Fuji, the yield is looking good, but the packouts will be down due to the damage. We are just about to start with the EnvyTM harvest.”
This season Hansens will export the EnvyTM variety in a program together with T&G Global and Montagues. T&G own the variety and marketing rights, together they will export around 20 containers to the Asian markets; China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore and Taiwan.
“We have worked on the export program for 6 months and are sticking to the plan despite the lockdown situation in China, hopefully things are beginning to change there now.”
Freight has been and remains challenging, but Howard is confident things will all go to plan. “We will continue with our motto of the last two years: Adapt, Improvise and Overcome.”
For more information:
Howard Hansen
Hansen Orchards
Tel: +61 3 6264 0200
Email: [email protected]