Sarah McArley and Carl O’Brien
AgFirst Consultants, Hawke’s Bay
Sarah.mcarley@agfirst.co.nz
Cyclone Gabrielle on 14 February 2025 brought unprecedented conditions to growers in Hawke’s Bay, creating continuously evolving challenges requiring immediate, short-term, mid-term, and long-term responses.
How to harvest any remaining crop? What recovery is required? How to sustain orchard productivity for future seasons and protect investment?
AgFirst worked to triage a range of different support techniques, that changed with the progression of post cyclone needs through the immediate (February 23 – May 23), short term (June 23 – Dec 23), and medium term (Dec 23 – Dec 24) timelines.
Immediate – February 2023 to May 2023
Once the safety of families, friends, and community had been established, growers and industry looked to determine the scale of impact. AgFirst worked alongside the pipfruit industry to collect data, quantify impacted area, determine the volume of affected fruit unable to be harvested, the value of that fruit, the cost of redeveloping, and the financial impact on profitability. Amongst the chaos of unknowns and while everything else was in disarray, numbers felt solid. They gave growers a mechanism to comprehend what had happened, communicate their loss, and therefore their needs going forward.
Following quantification, AgFirst assisted in creating decision matrices, setting out logical step by step tools to help decision making. It was clear growers’ capacity for decision making was low and the variability of damage was significant across orchards, therefore the matrices sought to consider the individual orchard needs, but provide quick management decisions, and rank priorities. For example, for those blocks requiring silt removal, prioritisation was ranked by block economic status and the rootstock susceptibility as well as the future potential returns of the variety, and its productive potential.
Grower information transfer was critical, especially in such a widespread, unprecedented event with such a range of impacts. One novel technique was AgFirst’s creation of a Whatsapp group for growers and stakeholders. The platform provided an easy and concise way to share ideas, photos, equipment availability, and advice. This Whatsapp group was a great success; It gave growers a no obligations connection, enabled simple, effective and unintimidating communication.
Short Term – June 23 to December 23
Upon completing the 2023 harvest, attention turned to tree and soil health and how this would impact the 2024 crop. Physiological responses of trees post flooding/silt was unknown and growers were concerned about bud quality, bloom density and the fruit set as a result. Crop loading decisions influence the pruning and thinning strategies for a block, so setting the crop load correctly was a major focus for growers in the 2024 spring.
It became apparent that the drainage systems of a block greatly influenced the health of the trees. For those blocks with good drainage, tree health recovered more quickly, and the impacts on the bloom were lesser than those blocks with poor drainage and flooded root systems.
Silt removal was still ongoing thorough the medium term. Clearing the silt from the bases of the trees was a priority to prevent scion rooting, and the associated issues this causes with vigour, production and fruit quality.
Medium Term – December 2023 to December 2024
As it transpired, the 2024 crop yield and quality outcomes were adversely impacted and the final harvest did not return the yield recovery estimated. AgFirst considers this is a result of ongoing effects of compromised root systems caused not only by Cyclone Gabrielle, but the poor weather conditions the seasons prior, alongside climate conditions that drove smaller fruit size outcomes.
Affected growers also had to make big decisions about the future direction of blocks. For those blocks which sustained significant damage, this was often whether replacing trees within an existing block was a cost-effective solution, or if grafting over to a new variety within the same system spacing was suitable. Growers were weighing up whether blocks should be cleared to greenfields and completely replanted, or even whether blocks would be better suited to an alternative land use. An understanding of the market trends, costs of production, succession planning, and capital availability factor into these decisions, some of which are still ongoing today.
Long Term – 2025 & Beyond
Unprecedented impacts required growers and industry to chart a course through the unknown to return to productivity and profitability. It is clear fruit trees and perennial horticultural crops are more resilient than initially expected, as are growers and the Hawke’s Bay industry. Yield outcomes in 2025 have shown further recovery, highlighting that triages of actions taken had clear benefit, as has the widespread unintimidating sharing of information.