New Zealand’s blackcurrant season has finished with more than 18% lower production than expected due to poor weather conditions, daily newspaper the Nelson Mail reported.

Spring forecasts predicted production between 8000 and 9000 metric tons (MT) but the season finished with 6500MT, the story reported.

Strong winds before Christmas were a major cause, cutting crops by 2000 ‘almost overnight’, while Blackcurrants NZ director Philip Leith told the newspaper that growers would have to get used to the onset of milder winters as a result of climate change.

"In some ways it's not a bad thing that we haven't got a big carryover of stock because world markets aren't particularly buoyant, but we would have preferred to have had a bigger crop and have some fruit available for some new market initiatives,” he was quoted as saying.

Source: www.freshfruitportal.com