The Hawke’s Bay kiwifruit grower known as the Ngāi Tukairangi Trust says signs of life appearing on its hard-hit orchard following Cyclone Gabrielle is encouraging. Ngāi Tukairangi Trust has eight kiwifruit and apple orchards around Hawke’s Bay, most of which were flooded during the February cyclone. Its worst-hit orchard was a 22-hectare kiwifruit orchard in Puketapu, right next to the Tūtaekurī River, which was seemingly destroyed by the floods.
However, Trust chairman Ratahi Cross said about a third of the orchard’s kiwifruit crops were showing greenery again. Cross: “It was a big surprise. [The silt] was half a metre deep in places - it was an absolute shocker - and we expected to lose the orchard, but some of the plants were able to breathe through the soil. We lost about two-thirds of the orchard, which was to be understood, but there is a third of it hanging in there. When you see something that’s trying to stay alive, it gives you hope.”
In terms of the surviving plants, he said “I reckon we will get a little bit of a harvest” from those plants in February and March.
Source: nzherald.co.nz