Nelson Pipfruit
Model Description
Nelson is the second largest apple district in New Zealand after Hawke's Bay. Most orchards have a mixture of old and new varieties. They are typically run by owner/operators.
Local market fruit is not significant, although larger growers are beginning to supply major brands of local market fruit. Fruit is generally packed off the orchard on contract by a packhouse that packs for two to three growers.
Years described as 1999/2000 refer to the financial year ending 30 June 2000. Seasons described as 2000 refer to fruit harvested in 2000. Revenue from one season is split between two financial years. Nelson pipfruit orchards have been increasing in size over recent years due to leasing. An adjustment to area has been made to the model in this report to reflect this.
Table 1: The Model in Summary 1999/2000 |
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| Area | 18.5 | ha |
| Effective planted area | 15.0 | ha |
| Production area 1999/2000 | 13.5 | ha |
| Production area 2000/01 | 13.5 | ha |
Key Points
- The export market for New Zealand pipfruit collapsed towards the end of the 1999 selling season resulting in poor grower returns.
- Deferred revenue in 1999/2000 was only $83,900, compared to $142,500 for 1998/99.
- Nelson orchardists suffered an orchard deficit of $85,000 that was reduced by off-orchard income to enable the net cash change to be $61,700.
- With on-shore restructuring, growers are now responsible for all costs to get fruit to the ship's side and receive payment from ENZA accordingly. Harvest and post-harvest costs account for 67% of the 2000/01 total cash orchard expenditure.
- A record pear crop has assisted Nelson growers in 1999/2000.
Physical Factors
Climate
The climate provided more fluctuations in temperature and rainfall than normal and this affected the physical development of the fruit. Early season conditions were warmer and November rainfall was 38% above average. Some varieties produced smaller fruit, but this was compensated by higher fruit volumes for those varieties.
Mid-season conditions were drier and colder than normal, with March being extremely dry with only 15% of normal rainfall. This caused fruit size to be affected.
April provided heavy rain and this gave a final boost to the fruit size for the final picks of Braeburn and Pacific Rose in particular.
There were no restrictions on irrigation.
Hail affected orchards in Waimea, Mapua, Tasman, Lower Moutere and Motueka River areas. Approximately 500,000 cartons of fruit were estimated to have been affected. Some losses were as high as 80% of the total crop. Many orchardists found that the good fruit numbers allowed them to achieve reasonable production where they had moderate to low hail impact.
Weather at pollination was exceptional, assisting early flowering varieties such as Braeburn to achieve a very strong fruit set.
Table 3: Growing Degree Days from Riwaka |
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| Year | December | January | February | Total |
| 1999/2000 | 170 | 222 | 217 | 609 |
| 1998/99 | 209 | 284 | 235 | 728 |
| 8-year average | 185 | 235 | 230 | 650 |
Source: HortResearch Ltd, Riwaka Research Station
Production
Export packouts were 5% lower than 1998/99. Growers were forecasting a packout of 79% over all varieties and they achieved 73%.
ENZA implemented a crop management programme for Braeburn. This allowed growers to receive 16ÿc/kg for fruit not harvested. This compared with the estimated 8ÿc/kg for processing. Sixty thousand cartons were committed to the crop management programme.
Harvest management concerns of the past were not apparent this season. Growers have adopted the ENZA profile system of monitoring their fruit for maturity.
All growers adopted Integrated Fruit Production (IFP) practices. Growers are happy with IFP production systems.
Organic pipfruit production is growing. Marlborough growers in particular, are showing interest in organics and eight are registered as transition "Bio-Gro". A strong organic discussion group has been established in the province.
Orchard leasing is becoming a feature of Nelson orcharding. Forty percent of orchards monitored now have blocks they lease. Half of these had agreed to new leases over the previous 12 months.
Orchard restructuring is slowing down as growers consolidate with the varieties they now have.
Nelson production was up 3% to a record crop of 6.62 million export cartons in year 2000, compared to 6.468 million export cartons in 1999.
The most significant increase in production came from pears. Nelson produced 330,000 export cartons of pears, which was a 37% increase from the 1999 production of 208,000 export cartons.
Excluded from this year's production figures were 60,000 cartons involved in the Braeburn crop management programme, the crop losses caused by two hailstorms and any fruit that was exported through the export consent process.
Braeburn
Nelson is the birthplace of Braeburn and led New Zealand production in 1999/2000, with 2.42 million export cartons.
Braeburn enjoyed the best of the climate with an early, warm start to the season. The weather over Braeburn pollination was exceptional, with clear, fine days of above average temperatures. The heavy crop load meant Braeburn fruit size was smaller at count 108 average. This was not helped by the very dry March and cooler, late summer temperatures, which slowed fruit growth.
Due to ENZA's size profile payments being significantly lower for count 150, most growers select picked, leaving the smaller fruit behind.
Braeburn packouts started promisingly with an 80% export content but soon dropped to below 70% because of small fruit size, sunburn and low colour. Typical shed packouts averaged 74% this year, which was lower than past years. Late harvested Braeburn and some packed ex controlled atmosphere stores also suffered from low packouts. Some lines were found with Braeburn Browning Disorder (BBD).
Royal Gala
Royal Gala is Nelson's second biggest variety behind Braeburn and 1.865 million cartons were produced in 2000. Fruit finish and colour development were equal to any previous years experienced in Nelson.
The main downside was the smaller fruit size. Nelson averaged count 123 fruit size which was significantly lower than last year's 113. The cooler summer, reduced hand thinning and over-cropping of trees, all contributed to this. Heavy November rains of 170 mm also caused some outbreaks of black spot that many growers never got back under control and these lowered packouts.
The cooler summer, expressed in Growing Degree Days (GDD), were lower than last year and lower than average for Nelson.
Last season's big fruit size and aggressive chemical thinning gave growers a false confidence this years crop would be of similar fruit size to last year's. This was reflected by minimal hand thinning done in early summer which led to less seasonal staff being employed for thinning. This impacted at harvest time as there was a shortage of suitable staff for harvesting. (Usually workers arrive in Nelson in December for fruit thinning work and stay on to complete harvesting.) Advertising soon overcame some of this as the harvest season progressed, but many orchards faced staff problems throughout the entire season.
Cox Orange
Nelson is the main producing area for Cox and a record 790,000 export cartons were produced this year. This was 9% higher than last years 723,000 export cartons. Export packouts were considerably higher, averaging 74%, contributing to this record volume. Some export packouts were above 80% with lower amounts of russet also contributing to this.
Fruit size was smaller, at an average of count 135. This was partially because of the season but also because of ENZA's pre-season directives. They indicated they did not want the large sized fruit that had been received for the previous year, e.g., counts 80 and 90. Therefore, growers were directed to the smaller fruit size and, as a consequence, and because of low russet levels, did minimal hand thinning.
Cox will continue to be a dominant variety in Nelson. They have the ideal climate for growing quality Cox and growers will persist if these production specifications are achieved.
Fuji
The year 2000 should have been a vintage year for Fuji. However, it was not to be as Fuji packouts suffered from low colour, mouldy core, bruising and minor russetting. A total of 440,000 export cartons were produced at an average size of 98. This was slightly up on the 420,000 export cartons produced in 1999. Packouts of around 60% were typical, with few exceptions. ENZA withdrew the low colour standard of 33-50% and this affected all growers. Growers also felt the interpretation of the colour standard had toughened over previous years.
Although Fuji is fetching good prices from ENZA, the low packouts and low production per hectare caused from poor colour development, is leading many growers to strongly question the future for Fuji in Nelson. Fuji is probably the best grown on the heavier clay soils where colour development is easier to obtain.
Pears
Nelson is the largest pear producing area in New Zealand and 2000 proved the best year yet. A record volume of 330,000 cartons were produced. This is up from 208,000 in 1999. Other pipfruit revenue in the model budget reflects the significance of pears.
Production is mainly confined to the varieties Beurre Bosc, Taylor's Gold and Doyenne du Commice pears. Exceptional early spring temperatures and strong flowering ensured this record crop. Fruit size was somewhat smaller for Taylor's Gold and Commice than wanted by ENZA, but growers are paid the same for all sizes. Therefore, little thinning was done.
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