Claims Following the Hail Event – 3 December 2025
On Wednesday last week, growers across New Zealand experienced adverse weather, especially wind and hail. Our Performance & Insights portfolio has been monitoring the hail claims coming in from growers, and the following summarises what we know so far. The primary areas impacted, for all varieties, are Maniatutu Road, Wilson Road North, and Pongakawa Bush Road, with claims also in Paengaroa and Maketu. A small number of orchards across most of the Bay of Plenty were also impacted, as were Franklin and Whangārei.
We are now at a stage where we are confident there will not be many more claims, with 143 active KPIN notifications.
92 KPINs have been visited, and while damage levels vary from 1% to 50%, the majority are being reported as below the policy deductible of 10%. Only 35 of those 92 already surveyed appear likely to exceed this threshold and will progress through the claims process. Most of these losses are in the 10–30% range, with a few isolated cases approaching 50%. We understand the impact is largely confined to Gold, and some growers have also reversed their claim and don’t require visits. The full impact won’t be known until the beginning of next year, before claims are progressed after orchards exceeding the policy deductible are revisited.
Our Performance and Insights portfolio has been assessing the claim applications through the industry Hail Committee, and we can confirm the following, which we don’t expect to change.
Share of Notifications by Variety
KPINs affected by region
Grower Self-assessment approximate damage by count of KPIN
Experience tells the industry that these self-assessments tend to be higher than the final outcomes, and while we know that it appears Gold will be impacted more than Green, we won’t know any more until the assessor completes their preliminary assessments. For this event, the Constructive Total Loss (CTL) for Sungold, Green & Sweet Green is considered to be 70% – but not RubyRed, which is 60% on or after 1st December.
As growers all around New Zealand will be able to attest from experience, hail is a reality of the industry, and we sympathise that the days following Wednesday will have been stressful for those whose orchards experienced some extent of impact. While our hearts go out to those growers, we can expect a supply estimate in the new year, which will reflect the true impact from this event, and the overseas markets should not expect any significant disruption. There will still be a plentiful supply so that consumers can still look forward to enjoying our high-quality fruit. We won’t know what the hail event will cost our industry, as between now and harvest, multiple factors can change. While most growers will have already thinned to their target crop load, we also know fruit can heal, and growers can make decisions about whether they wish to proceed with a claim in situations where they are close to the 10% deductible. Zespri note the most important message from the Assessor is that Growers do not thin (except those that were still above CTL at the time of the event, with whom the Assessor is working closely to develop individualised plans) and to let fruit grow as healing can occur.
Ultimately, while the full impact of last week’s hail event will take time to quantify, early indications suggest that, despite localised challenges for some growers, which we sympathise with, the industry remains resilient and well-positioned to meet market expectations in the coming season.