Heavy rain - almost 50mm-throughout district on Monday and Tuesday was disappointing but not a disaster, industry leaders said yesterday.
''We're already back picking for export and there's still substantial volumes of good-quality Central Otago cherries for the domestic and the export market,'' Cromwell orchard 45 South general manager Tim Jones said.
Mr Jones, who is also the deputy chairman of Summerfruit New Zealand, was philosophical about the rain damage.
''That's just the nature of cherry growing, but it's not a total disaster by any stretch of the imagination. There's plenty of good fruit out there.''
His comments were echoed by Roxburgh orchardist and Summerfruit New Zealand chairman Gary Bennetts.
''There's damage and there's going to be some losses but there's still a good crop there and we're really excited about it.''
The volume of cherries was greater than it had ever been, as a result of good fruit set and good growing conditions, as well as new plantings reaching maturity, and he was confident the export crop would easily surpass last year's 1400 tonnes.
''Earlier in the season we were saying it would reach 3000 tonnes, but maybe now it'll drop back to around 2500 tonnes, but that's still a good volume.
''Central Otago provided 95% of the cherries exported from New Zealand, Mr Bennetts said.
It was too soon to predict the overall toll on the crop.
''Although everyone received almost two inches of rain over those two days, it's affected growers differently, depending on their soil, their location and what varieties they grow, but it certainly isn't all doom and gloom.''
Larger fruit was most vulnerable to the rain, but it was early in the export season and later varieties might have coped better with the deluge.
Mr Bennetts was surprised at the lack of damage to his own cherry crop.
''I'd estimate we might lose 15% but it was a much bigger crop than usual anyway.''
Mr Jones said 45 South had expected to pack about 1000 tonnes of cherries this season, compared with last year's record of 650 tonnes.
While volumes would now drop as a result of the rain damage, the early part of the season was still a bumper one, compared to other years.
''Our previous best volume by New Year was 100 tonnes, but this year we'd packed 175 tonnes before Christmas.''
Earnscleugh orchardist Harry Roberts said it was disappointing to get the rain after such a promising start to the season.
''It was probably shaping up to be one of the nicer seasons but two inches of rain is an awful lot for cherries to suck up.''
It was to soon to estimate the extent of the damage but he expected about 30% of some varieties on his orchard would be lost, while the damage to other varieties was 15% or as low as 5%.
''That's part and parcel of working on the land. Look at those poor farmers down south, and all the snow they got, '' Mr Roberts said.
