Third time unlucky with hailstorm damage

By Andy Wilson

Mar 31, 2023

Damage to Jake Anderson’s apple and pear orchard two weeks ago comes at the end of yearly challenges since he took up his family’s business. “I don’t know what a normal year looks like,” he says. The hailstorm has cost the farm $100,000.

Fruit growers in the Goulburn Valley have again been devastated by hailstones larger than a 20¢ coin after a storm swept through the area on Thursday, March 23.

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Ardmona orchardist Jake Anderson said the storm would halve the harvest size on the 20ha of apples and pears grown on his family farm.

Mr Anderson said he had survived last year’s summer hailstorms through good luck, but that this recent storm had severely affected this year’s crop.

“For the Melbourne Cup storm, we didn’t have netting on but we were in the thinning process anyway so got the damaged fruit off,” he said.

“We dodged the pre-Christmas storm.

“So we have been quite lucky until last week.”

Mr Anderson said any fruit not covered with netting had been destroyed and he was grateful for the Federal Government’s netting program which saw him install protection during the past three years.

The federal netting program has been managed by the Victorian Government and provides funding for half the costs of installation up to a value of $150,000.

Mr Anderson said he only had money to cover 10ha.

“I could not afford to max out the program, but because I had already started putting netting on and because the program was retrospective for 12 months, I also got half of that past expense back,” he said.

The loss of the uncovered fruit will affect the orchard’s income this season.

“I reckon we lost about $100,000 in 10 minutes.

“Everything but our actual picking costs have been paid for up to now: pruning, spraying, you name it.

“The biggest problem now is our labour cost.”

Mr Anderson said the minimum standard wage requirements forced on farmers meant that picking productivity was lower than previous years.

“We are not paying per bin, so our pickers don’t pick as much.

“Compared to last year, it costs twice as much to pay for labour.

“When I paid per piece, pickers could fill six to eight bins per day, but now we are getting about five bins per worker because of the minimum wage.”

Mr Anderson said this was the biggest issue now facing all growers.

“Do we salvage or is the cost too high so we’re better to shake the fruit to the ground?

“We are in the only job in the world where you cannot invoice for the product that we produce because we are at the mercy of the market.”

This season’s storms come at the end of six years of other challenges including bird damage, insects and drought.