Brydon Nisbet: Hawke’s Bay Fruitgrowers Association President on the early harvest

Hawke's Bay apple growers are reaping the rewards of their recovery after Cyclone Gabrielle.  

The region grows two-thirds of the country's apples but was badly affected by the cyclone in 2023. 

They say a warm and dry spring has led to one of the earliest picking seasons in decades.  

Hawke’s Bay Fruitgrowers Association President Brydon Nisbet told Mike Hosking that everything is set for a fantastic harvest. 

He says there’s a huge volume of fruit of good quality, size, and colour. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We've got the fruit bowl of New Zealand ripe and

(00:01):
ready for the picking harvest time in the bay. What
are we talking about? Apples? Of course, and when I
say the Bay Hawks Bay Groves reporting the earliest crop
they've seen in decades, it's important because nearly two thirds
of our apples come from the Bay Hawk's Bay Fruit
Grows Association President Brighton this but with us Brighton, very
good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Good morning, Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
I'm very well, thank you. You had a perfect storm
and no pun intended there. Obviously it's all come together
we otherwise I take it.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Listen, it's looking incredibly good this year. We had a
fantastic winter which set up good winter chilling units and
set up the bud an extremely early spring. In a
fine spring, we didn't get a lot of rain, so
everything's set for a fantastic harvest volume.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
The quality have you got both?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
We've got both. There's a huge volume out there. The
quality is good at the apples are sizing up. The
color is fantastic. Of course, we need cooler knights to
bring up the color and we've had a lot of
cool nights and at the moment we're kind of sitting
in the mid twenties through the day and dropping down
to teach in eleven at night. So it's just it's
a perfect breed for a.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Great absolutely perfect labor.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
You got it. Baby's good. No, we have a support
of government. Labor doesn't seem to be too much of
a problem anymore. We have backpackers back in town. We
have rscs here are valued workers from the Pacific who
are just fantastic. We couldn't do what we do without them.
And of course we've got kiwis around about as well.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
What about the size of the industry posts the storms?
Is it smaller than what it was?

Speaker 2 (01:31):
It's a little bit smaller. You'll be surprised, actually. So
we had about eighty growers about four thousand hectares affected
from the floods, and out of four thousand hectares, we
had six hundred and ten that were completely wiped out
that some will never be planted again, some wall but
pre twenty twenty three floods we're only in a deficit

(01:51):
of about one hundred and one hundred and ten hectares.
I think that's not plant Do you know anything more?

Speaker 1 (02:00):
This gotcha? Do you know anything about grapes?

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Not really.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
It's just so maybe I just followed the grapes and
they'll be picking very shortly. Would would would though it
should be good for the grapes as well, shouldn't it.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
I think it'll be good for the grapes. It's definitely
good for the for vegetables. The onion harvest. The good
squash out there is just doing fantastic.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
Love it, go well with it, enjoy it. Brighton this
but hawks by Fruit Gross Association tell you what I'm
excited about about in my place. I've got apples, a
lot of apples. He's right about. I mean, I'm north
of him, obviously, but the apples are good now. Our
apples are crap though they're old fashioned apples. No one
wants our apples unless you're going to do something like
stew them. So we don't pears. We'll get a lot
of pears. But the figs fig season, which I reckon
it might be more. I'm thinking maybe a month to go.

(02:41):
Absolutely Gangbusters had them netted up the other day, ready
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