https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-27/damaged-avocados/10943626
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Posted 27 Mar 2019, 12:10amIt is estimated around four million avocados were smashed in a hail storm at Pretty Gully near Tabulam in northern New South Wales.https://www.freshfruitportal.com/news/2019/03/27/australia-massive-hail-storm-rips-through-nsw-avocado-orchard/A hail storm that ripped through an avocado orchard in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales last week has destroyed an estimated 4 million avocados, local media ABC reported.
Aussie Orchards’ managing director Colin Foyster said 80 percent of the fruit on the 12,000 trees at the Pretty Gully farm was knocked off and onto the ground.
ABC Rural: Kim Honan“I wasn’t here but some people have said the hail stones were up to three inches [7.6cm] in size and very jagged,” he was quoted as saying.
“It only hailed for less than 10 minutes, but [the stones were] big enough to knock the fruit off the tree or damage the remaining fruit. It’s three months away from harvest, so it’s all immature, so it’s unsalvageable.”
Foyster said the remaining fruit on the trees also had impact marks where the hail hit the fruit, and the trees themselves were also damaged.
“If it’s around the stem, or it’s severe, it will lead to a rot and that fruit will then drop off,” he was quoted as saying. “But most of the remaining fruit, the 20 percent, it’ll just be downgraded. “But most of the remaining fruit, the 20 per cent, it’ll just be downgraded.”
The hailstorm is believed to be one of the biggest natural disasters to hit a single avocado orchard in Australia.
“This is a 100 per cent mature orchard; the original trees are 20 years old and the youngest trees are 12 years old,” Foyster was quoted as saying.
The 2019 crop would have produced an estimated 200,000 trays of fruit, or around 50 semitrailer loads of avocados.
Subject: Check Ur Avocados at the Door 
Mon Apr 01, 2019 9:20 pm
