The 2025/26 export cherry season won’t go down in history as a vintage year, but orchardists across Central Otago still have plenty of fruit to pick yet.

Rain, wind and hail battered Central Otago orchardists since the beginning of Spring, and Cromwell growers have been battling at least one rain event a week for the past two months.

Fortune Fruit in Lowburn has called out helicopters to dry cherries at least seven times, and said any more rain will be disastrous for the orchard.

Manager Blair Davidson said this season was “unlike any other,” and he described the ongoing wind and rain as relentless.

“Things will get pretty dire if we get more rain.”

The orchard had to cull 40% of a block of cherries from rain damage in early January, but many of their later varieties were still on the trees, with 350 tonne still to pick. 

“There is still good fruit out there, if we get no more rain it will still be an okay season,” Blair said.

Panmure Orchards grower Jeremy Hiscock, of Earnscleugh, said the rain came at the wrong times when many growers were trying to get export fruit off to market - particularly cherries.

“It’s been a cool summer but we’ve had worse.”

The weather also affected harvest windows, with some pickers frustrated with delays having to wait for different varieties to ripen.

Leaning Rock in Springvale, has been advertising for pickers all this week across social media, as the fruit has all started to finally ripen.

Last year the peak of the summerfruit season in Central Otago was around January 17, but this year it was running at least 2-3 weeks behind.

Growers say the cooler season has affected sizing across crops and delayed their maturity, “but if anything it has spread the season out and there should be less pain that way,” Jeremy said.

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