Winter hits the Southern Growers Hard

Times are tough for Canterbury flower growers who have been hit with not only thousands of earthquakes, but a huge snow storm already this winter.

The continuing aftershocks are now over ten thousand. Two snow storms hit Canterbury last winter and another big snow storm struck in early June this year.

“We have reached some other records too. On June 6 Christchurch Airport recorded the lowest daytime maximum for 24 hours for nearly 149 years of record keeping. It was – 7 degrees outside our nursery and we had the boilers working overtime just to get the temperature up to 9 degrees inside the glasshouses, even though we really needed it to be at least 16 degrees C,” says Ian Kempthorne of K &L Nurseries in Christchurch.

He says the low temperatures caused lost production for the nurseries gerberas and roses.

“I’m sure every other grower in Canterbury was struggling to keep plants warm enough.”

Mr Kempthorne says continuing rising fuel costs are adding to grower’s woes.

“As the government is taking a hard line on coal burning we have had to look for a cheaper fuel source to heat our operation. We have decided to run with a low CV grade coal in a bid to reduce our ever increasing heating expenses. After all we are not getting higher prices for our flowers on the market floor to offset the higher heating costs. At about $100 a ton cheaper than high CV blend, we hope to get through this winter without
hindering our crop too much.”

Mr Kempthorne urges all growers to check their costs and make wise choices for heating.

“This year our nursery is embarking on our biggest project yet. We are installing a Biomass boiler with a large thermal storage tank which will help us heat through these extreme weather patterns and save on costs at
the same time. We hope our new project will see us through the next event Mother Nature has to throw at us. Watch this space!” he says.