{"id":44768,"date":"2025-09-26T17:14:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T17:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/44768\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T17:14:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T17:14:23","slug":"sunlive-bop-avocado-growers-donate-windfall-fruit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/44768\/","title":{"rendered":"SunLive – BOP avocado growers donate windfall fruit"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bay of Plenty avocado industry has banded together after \u201cdevastating\u201d winds hit more than 400 orchards, with some losing 90% of their fruit.<\/p>\n

Growers are working with New Zealand Avocado and the New Zealand Food Network to recover and distribute tonnes of windfall fruit to charities across the region.<\/p>\n

Strong winds<\/a>\u00a0blew through last weekend, disrupting the\u00a0avocado harvest.<\/p>\n

Katikati grower Eddie Biesiek said the winds \u201ccompletely uprooted\u201d shelter trees and some mature avocado trees.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo days of continuous, devastating wind have resulted in about 60% of our crop forming a carpet of literally tonnes of avocados on the floor of the orchard.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said one orchard that packed fruit before and after the storm experienced a drop in the export pack-out from 85% to 65%.<\/p>\n

\u201cFruit is unable to be marketed once it is on the ground – it must be picked from the tree.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur initial knee-jerk reaction was to mow the fallen fruit so that we weren\u2019t being reminded of our loss, but when NZ Avocado suggested offering the fruit to NZ Food Network for donations, and we realised someone could benefit, we got on board.\u201d<\/p>\n

One bin of their windfall fruit holds about 300kg.<\/p>\n

Sixteen RSE workers from Vanuatu, who usually work in kiwifruit orchards, filled 26 more bins on Tuesday, making a total of 10 tonnes of fruit destined for local charities.<\/p>\n

\"\"The ground of Eddie Biesiek’s orchard was covered in unmarketable avocados. Photo \/ Eddie Biesiek<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people have offered their services to enable something good to come from a bad situation,\u201d said Biesiek.<\/p>\n

Alistair Young, chairman of the New Zealand Avocado Growers Association (NZAGA) and an orchardist, said that the area between Athenree and \u014cmokoroa, north of Tauranga, experienced the heaviest losses.<\/p>\n

He said the peninsulas were exposed to southwesterly winds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe winds tend to come in gusts, so the branches sort of crack like a whip. That\u2019s how the fruit comes off pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Damage to Eddie Biesiek’s avocado orchard caused by strong winds. Photo \/ Eddie Biesiek<\/p>\n

The avocado industry had submitted an ongoing impact assessment report to the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) to see if further support could be available, Young said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe industry is collating the amount of damage to growers, which growers are affected by what percentage, and we\u2019re supplying that information to MPI. We have no ability at this stage to report on any outcomes from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Zealand Avocado chief executive Brad Siebert said each orchard was affected differently, but some growers had lost more than 90% of their fruit.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowers are taking immediate action to work with their supply chain partners, assessing the quantum of fruit loss and determining harvest strategy and timing for remaining fruit on the trees.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 400 orchards covering 900 hectares within the Bay of Plenty had been affected by recent weather events, Siebert said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Brad Siebert, chief executive of New Zealand Avocado. Photo \/ NZ Avocado<\/p>\n

\u201cThe early season\u2019s 2025-26 crop estimate was just over 6 million trays, split 60\/40 between export and local market.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile this is around 1 million trays down from previous seasons, packouts continue to improve, and we are yet to fully quantify how recent weather events have impacted the national crop volume.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said there would be an impact on fruit volumes out of the Western Bay of Plenty, but this would sit in the context of the national crop.<\/p>\n

Stringent and mandatory industry systems ensure that the fruit harvested meets New Zealand standards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Consumers would continue to see \u201cexceptional\u201d fruit quality.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we start to pack fruit following the event, we will likely see an increased percentage of fruit downgraded away from export due to superficial wind damage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gavin Findlay is chief executive of the NZ Food Network, a non-profit dedicated to sharing food donations with communities in need.<\/p>\n

He said he made contact with Siebert last weekend and began work on the ground on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve rescued about 85 bins of fruit in the Bay of Plenty from four orchards in and around the Katikati area.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a fair bit of work between organising labour to go and collect fruit, organising transport, organising on-site machinery, the collection itself, and the consolidation of the bins at the end of the pick.\u201d<\/p>\n

NZ Food Network partnered with Team Global Express to transport fruit to charities, which include Good Neighbour and Feeding Rotorua.<\/p>\n

\u201cAvocados are a superfood,\u201d Findlay said. \u201cAt times, there\u2019s a bit of a cost to them, so sometimes the communities we work with wouldn\u2019t necessarily purchase avocados.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s great to get them exposed to a good-quality and nutritious product.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bay of Plenty avocado industry has banded together after \u201cdevastating\u201d winds hit more than 400 orchards, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-44768","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}