A prominent orchard block alongside the state highway in Ettrick remained completely unpicked, and the grower in charge, Stephen Darling, said that was because there had been the risk of seeing little to no return on the fruit.
Mr Darling said he could not guarantee the larger, later-season, red variety would have fetched a price from foreign consumers that would have justified growing, picking, packing and transporting them.
However, it would be wrong for people who saw the block to assume it had been a bad season for all apples, he said.
"It [the unpicked block] is just one part of our overall orchard — but a very visible part, so it’s attracted a bit of attention, unfortunately."
Elsewhere on the orchard, the season had been much more positive for Mr Darling, particularly with smaller apples destined for overseas supermarkets and the family fruit bowl as global consumers tightened their belts.
"Certainly it’s been harder to sell the higher-priced, gift-type fruit."
Meanwhile, along the road at Dumbarton Orchard in Roxburgh some apples had been left on trees because they were not red enough to satisfy overseas consumers.
Orchard manager John McKinnel, with more than 30 seasons under his belt, said 200 to 300 bins-worth of too-pale Braeburn apples were not picked this year — but that was not anything unusual, in his opinion.
"They’re picked to a colour standard, so what you’re seeing left had not reached the colour for export.
"The Braeburn is an apple that is quite hard to get the colour into, so there is always a percentage left on the tree."
While close to 550 bins of Mr McKinnel’s Braeburn apples did make the export grade — alongside plenty of bins of other varieties of apples grown on the orchard’s blocks — he said as a grower it was tough seeing fruit left on trees.
Both orchardists said it was not a given that apples grown for an export market could be sold locally instead.
Mr McKinnel said he had not been able to sell his leftover Braeburns for juice this year, while Mr Darling said New Zealand consumers already had plenty of apples to buy.
"We are very successful at apple growing in New Zealand, and this year we were looking at a record apple crop."
