7 Jan 2023

Never-ending rain sowing grief for vegetable growers

6:05 pm on 7 January 2023
vegetables growing, generic

Non-stop rain is hurting vegetable growers. Photo: Unsplash / Arnaldo Aldana

An Auckland vegetable grower did not expect the bad weather to go on this long.

Heavy wind and rain has been hitting the country since before Christmas, spoiling the season for crop harvesters.

The president of the Pukekohe Growers Association, Kirit Makan, said the recent weather has been particularly unseasonable.

"We've had a bit of good weather between say Christmas and the New Year, and so a little bit of the harvesting has got done, but we wouldn't want this weather really to carry on."

Makan believed vegetable prices would not increase despite the troubled harvesting season.

"I don't anticipate that will be the case but it's possible if we get a really prolonged period of wet weather - which I don't think that we will, but I don't have any control on that. "

Unfortunately, more rain was in the forecast going into next week.