Local growers continue to be hit by the ongoing impacts of the La Nina weather pattern. Spring has produced consistent rainfall and lower temperatures than normal, impacting crops across all farms.
LeaderBrand, one of the nation’s largest sweet corn producers, has had to delay its harvest by a week due to the weather pattern. Gisborne’s climate is usually abundant with sunshine and warmer temperatures, which makes it the perfect location to grow sweet corn.
“This spring has brought us some challenges with a lot of rain. However, the last couple of weeks has seen the weather settle down a bit, and we’ve had enough hours of sunshine just in time for harvesting our first crop of corn later this week. The more settled weather will also help our later harvests of corn, set to be picked throughout January,” said Gordon McPhail, General Manager of Farming.
LeaderBrand corn is handpicked once it has reached maturity to ensure the highest quality for customers.
Last year, supermarkets sold over one million corn on the cob in the 14 days before Christmas, and it was in the top five items with the biggest lift in sales a fortnight before the holiday.
