Plenty of workers and an abundance of stonefruit in Central Otago this season is putting smiles back on the faces of many local orchardists.

Fifth generation grower Gary Bennetts, of New Zealand Orchard Direct in Roxburgh, said having staff has made a huge difference this season.

Over the past three summers he had struggled to get all of his fruit off the trees, and had to leave behind about 30 to 40 tonne of cherries last year because he had nobody to pick them.

This season they’ve had more enquiries for work than they could handle, “which was just fantastic really. There is hope now, where there was no hope before.”

Many orchardists spoken to, including Gary, said they had just been trying to keep their orchards financially viable the past few years.

In Earnscleugh there had been reports of orchardists pulling out their trees in 2023, particularly apricots, but this season the stonefruit has been plentiful. Cherries have had a mixed season and many growers were looking to finish slightly earlier than usual.

Gary said weather has been changeable in the Teviot with a mixture of both very hot and very cool days, and some of the earlier varieties of cherries were affected before Christmas because of the rain.

Some of the huge and juicy peaches grown locally at Webbs Fruit in Cromwell. PHOTO: Supplied

Fruit pickers spoken to in the Roxburgh area from another orchard said they were being paid in early January to pull 70 per cent of the cherries off the trees from one block because they had all split.

They were looking forward to some better days, where everyone could start making some good money.

Jeremy Hiscock, from Panmure Orchards in Earnscleugh, said the weather had been perfect for growing the fruit and finishing the fruit, “and being able to keep up with the pick.”

“If this was an El Nino summer then I’m having one every year.”

There was a great vibe around the staff camp this year, as numbers of employees were back to capacity, and people seemed to be enjoying their work, Jeremy said.

“It’s nice to have walk-ins too,” although, admittedly, it was hard to turn others away when they were busy and full.

Gary was also involved in the early trials of the new nzsummer apricot varieties - having planted his trees eight to 10 years ago, and said the crop was very heavy and he was optimistic for the new exports this season.

Between 44,000 to 45,000 trees spanning 44 to 46 hectares nationwide have been planted in the new apricot varieties, which had involved 20 growers. The majority of these are in Central Otago, from Ardgour Valley near Tarras right through to Ettrick.