Bilpin apple grower fears mystery failed crop could be linked to varroa mite

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Transcript

00:00This apple orchard west of Sydney would normally be in full bloom, but this year's growing

00:11season has fallen short.

00:13We estimate that we have five to ten percent of what we'd normally have on the trees.

00:20Farmer Bill Shields runs a pick-your-own business in Bilpin in the Blue Mountains.

00:25He says he's never seen a harvest this small.

00:27It's quite depressing. I mean, anyone in agriculture who has a crop failure, you know, they say

00:33what have I done wrong?

00:34With Varroa mite still present across the state, producers fear cooler temperatures and a lack

00:39of native bees could be to blame. Since the tiny mite arrived in New South Wales, tens of

00:45thousands of hives have been destroyed.

00:47So it's now quite prevalent because it's being spread around by apiarous moving hives to pollinate

00:54food crops.

00:55The primary industries department says the crop failure appears to be isolated to Bilpin

01:00and that for now it's difficult to determine the root cause, but pollination and climatic

01:05conditions may have contributed.

01:07It's strange that it's only happened in that area of the state, but given there's been a

01:13number of different orchards that have shown the same effect, it's difficult to know.

01:18Not all producers have been affected. Up the road, Chris Tedrosi's apple and cherry

01:24farm is teeming with fruit.

01:25If the weather's on your side and you're lucky enough, things will fall into place, but like

01:30I said, you can do the same thing year in year out and get different results. Pretty resilient

01:35bunch. When you're growing fruit with Mother Nature, it throws a lot of obstacles in front of you.

01:39Obstacles these farmers would rather avoid.

01:43Obstacles these farmers would rather avoid.

01:45Obstacles these farmers would rather avoid.

01:48Obstacles these farmers would rather have been afflicted by the junior and the second

01:52year.