Photo: RNZ / Carol Stiles
Losses from a severe frost that wiped out entire blueberry orchards in Waikato this month could reach $25 million, Waikato grower Dan Peach estimates
Most Waikato growers lost 90 percent of their blueberry production while a few lost half their crop.
Other producers in the region were also hit by the cold snap this month, which froze crop of one of the country's largest asparagus growers, Boyds Asparagus, and decimated strawberry crops on the outskirts of Hamilton.
Peach said some in the sector were figuring out how to make up for the loss.
"For some growers, that's how they put food on the table and they're having to pivot and think about what else they can do, what skills they've got, what other part time jobs, what they used to do," he said.
For some staff, particularly casual workers who do picking, "that's going to be harder", Peach said. The effects of the frost could leave as many as 400 growers and seasonal fruit pickers without work for the next few months. The harvest season runs until March or April.
"The challenge is that these people are not people who are just coming in on a working holiday visa or recognised seasonal employing staff, these people are permanent residents of Hamilton, their kids go to school here.
"To pick up sticks and move to another area to pick a different crop is just not an option, really."
Hewas trying to create work elsewhere on the orchard for staff because he wanted them to return in 2023.
He said there would be enough blueberries for sale before Christmas, as quite a few were grown under cover, and other regions also grew them.
There could be a slight shortage after Christmas and supplies to the main export market, Australia, would be down, he said.
