The strong winds that lashed the country on February 13 have caused significant damage to some kiwifruit and avocado orchards in the Bay of Plenty.

Cyclone Dovi caused flooding, downed trees and cut power to homes.

Bay of Plenty orchardist Hugh Moore says some avocado trees were completely uprooted by the wind, while others had lost branches full of fruit.

He says both new season fruit and the last of this season's crop have been impacted.

Another orchardist in the area, Mark Hume, from Hume Pack-N-Cool, says it was a significant wind event.

"It was very forceful. It took out a lot of power; a lot of trees came down over power wires and stuff, and a lot of orchards got sort of pretty wrapped around, especially the young ones. Young gold kiwifruit orchards with poles up, all the poles have been knocked over.

'That's Life'

"But that's horticulture, we'll get up and go again. It's not good, but that's life. If there's less fruit hopefully the prices go up. That'll make up for the damage," Hume says.

BOP grower Angela Sutton told 1News that they have so many avocados, they just don't know what to do with it.

'I saw big trees tossed around in the wind like they were feathers.

'Anything that is on the ground can't be sold domestically or on the export market because of health and safety concerns. For the crop, it means we are not going to get much of a crop at all.

'It just seems such a waste for the fruit to go unused. They have had a lot put into them, a lot of expense.

'People love avocados. They are good for people. Why can't we get them to them?”

Big Winds, Big Damage

Tony Bradley, from Aongatete Avocados Ltd, was sitting at his desk writing his Coast and Country column when the storm blew through.

'Big winds can do big damage in a short space of time and that's what happened.

'The wind gave us a fair old battering. It started to blow from the nor east and ending slamming down off the Kaimai ranges from the sou-west. The trees were turned inside out.”

He says the fruit for this year's harvest is not necessarily impacted, but rather the amount of next year's crop that has gone.

'Yes, there is fruit left, yes storms like this may shorten the market supply up and maybe we'll see some better pricing for the remaining season, however, we now have to clean up.”

Tony says it is luckily the financial impact is not to dramatic this year, as they are already well into a tough season and the returns are still low.

'Speculation is always rife after we have these big loss events. The wind was so strong in gusts that even fruit remaining on the trees could be bruised.

'I have seen where this bruising has happened in previous storms and by the time we get to harvest that fruit they appear to have self-healed with no visible damage.”

A Difficult Season

New Zealand Avocado chief executive Jen Scoular says the industry had already been facing a difficult season, with softer demand in some export markets leaving growers struggling to get break even prices.

Scoular says sadly the large volume of fruit that has fallen on the ground would not be salvageable, partly because of food safety but also because much of it would be bruised.

"I had one grower who thought they'd lost half of their crop which was ready to be harvested between now and April and other growers who have a lot of the new season fruit on the ground as well.

"So the wind just ripped around trees. We've certainly had big branches come off trees and smaller trees being ripped up, so real damage for avocado growers."

Scoular says New Zealand Avocado could provide technical advice to growers including things they could do to try and nurse wind-damaged trees back to health.