Ex-Cyclone Alfred costs NSW farmers millions in stock loss and damage

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Farmers and growers are counting the growing costs of Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred. Many remain in clean up mode and are trying to figure out how the damage will impact crop yields.

Transcript

00:00The damage bill for primary industries here on the north coast is nearly at $30 million.

00:08The majority of that by far is horticulture at more than $16 million.

00:13An ex-tropical cyclone, Alfred, did not discriminate between crops.

00:17There are reports of widespread damage across orchards, plantations and vegetable farms.

00:23Even here at the Wallingbar Primary Industries Institute, the strong winds ripped the roof

00:28off this blueberry tunnel here.

00:30Kevin Quinlan is the lead for Northern Horticulture.

00:34We've seen a whole range of damage, which really falls into the categories of broken

00:38branches, plants blown over out of the ground, a lot of leaf loss, a lot of crop dropped

00:45on the ground, erosion to the orchard floor in a number of situations, flooding down on

00:51the floodplains, inundation of orchards and access roads cut as well and damaged.

00:57There probably isn't one farm here on the Alstonville Plateau that hasn't been impacted

01:02by ex-tropical cyclone Alfred.

01:04One of the macadamia growers that's been affected is Myles Gillespie.

01:08We estimate we've lost 10 tonnes of macadamia crop, which is about $50,000 Australian dollars.

01:14The issue with harvesting the nuts on storm-damaged trees is that we have machines that pick them

01:19up off the ground, so we can't really pick them off the trees as the trees are laying

01:23on the ground.

01:25So we have no real economic value in hand-picking nuts off trees.

01:29And the New South Wales Government is urging growers to report their damage so they can

01:34get a full assessment of the cost of ex-tropical cyclone Alfred.

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