It’s going to take time

It is now more than a month since Cyclone Gabrielle struck with devastating effects. While the clean-up effort is well underway, with immediate financial support from the Government, the recovery is going to take time – up to if not more than a decade, much like Christchurch after the February 2011 earthquake. 

When not shifting silt or piling up frames, trees or vines, affected growers will have been asked to try and quantify the impact – short, medium and long term – on their operation. These data requests are to build up as accurate a picture as possible – for the Government, regional councils, banks and insurance companies – of the cyclone’s impact and how industries and communities can best recover. 

This vital work is taking time for several reasons. One, the picture painted needs to reflect all the different parts of the primary sector that have been affected and, in some cases, farmers in isolated areas are only now able to access their stock and assess damaged infrastructure. Two, it takes time to understand the impact and estimate it with any sense of confidence, for example, will these trees survive or not? And three, discussions need to be had and agreement reached across central and local government, banks and insurance companies as to the approach to take and what that looks like, over the next decade plus. 

Timeframes being something affected growers are very conscious of, particularly when it comes to saving trees and vines, or trying to salvage vegetable crops that were not affected directly by the cyclone but have been subject to repeated wet weather. 

It is very tough for affected growers. On the one hand, there’s the clean-up and trying to harvest what’s untouched to salvage some income; and on the other hand, trying to objectively consider the future.

And the future is a very individual pathway to plot, with lots of variables to assess. For example, if I’m not as young as I was, do I have the energy or desire to spend the next six to eight years building up my operation again? 

Because of this complexity, I sense it will take the Government a bit more time before it is able to confidently decide what the next stage of the cyclone recovery – for the whole primary sector as well as parts of the country like Auckland and the Coromandel – looks like. That will be of cold comfort for some growers who are eager to forge ahead. However, it’s in everybody’s best interests for us all to get this right, particularly given long recovery timeframes. 

Please be patient, stay connected and focus positively on what lies ahead, confident that our industry is more than capable of forging a bright future – and that we will have the ongoing support of Government and others vital to our industry’s success, because our fundamentals are sound.