Hailstorm damage leaves SA vineyards, orchards still rebuilding one year on

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One year on from a freak hailstorm, farmers in parts of South Australia are still counting their losses.

The storm cell on October 28 last year was declared an "insurance catastrophe" by the Insurance Council of Australia, with more than 60,000 claims across three states.

Heathvale Wines owner Trevor March said he lost 100 per cent of his Eden Valley crop almost instantly.

"I lost about $120,000 in seven minutes … and we don't insure for hail – it's prohibitive," he said.

While he initially tried to grin and bear it, Mr March said he later realised the disaster had sent him into shock.

"It did have a mental effect [on me]," he said.

"And then that afternoon, we had these gale force winds come through. Anything that had been bruised in the morning just snapped off in the afternoon.

"It looked like someone had been through with a machine harvester and just trashed the place."

Laughing Jack Wines owner Shawn Kalleske said he was still repairing his property in the Barossa Valley one year after hail wiped out 50 per cent of his crop.

"We've sort of just been limping along for the last 12 months," he said.

The sixth-generation farmer said he was bottling wine when the storm hit.

"I thought, 'Is that hail? Surely not. I wasn't aware of anything forecast'," he said.

Riverland grower Ryan Arnold would rather not remember the day 150 kilometre per hour winds left the netting at his family's citrus orchards in Pyap "shredded like Halloween cobwebs".

"It pretty much just ran through the centre of our property — I was just sitting in the office watching it unfold," he said.

Mr Arnold said he was grateful that the state government had provided funding to assist with the clean-up.

"That came through quite quick, which was really helpful," he said.

"I was also able to access the hail netting grant, with a co-contribution.

"That definitely helped lighten the load but it was a significant cost to our business."

But Mr Arnold said the hail damage, and having his fruit exposed while waiting for re-netting, reduced the quality of his oranges by about 20 per cent.

Century orchards chief executive Brendan Sidhu said it took a few weeks to clean up the almond orchard at Loxton after it was hit by golf-ball sized hail.

"The trees really did look like they were beaten up but it was also just a really stressful time for the management and staff," he said.

However, Mr Sidhu said he was more optimistic about this year's yields than he was at the time.

"We thought we had lost about 50 per cent in some of our orchards, but I think it's more likely about 20 per cent," he said.

Mr Sidhu said he while he planned to claim hail insurance to help cover the loss, that would not be an option in future.

In a statement the South Australian Department of Primary Industries and Regions (PIRSA) said more than $9 million had been paid in Disaster Recovery grants — jointly funded through Commonwealth and state Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements. 

This was split between primary producer recovery grants and the waste removal program.

"The grants [of up to $10,000] and waste removal program provided short term assistance to help producers return to production as quickly as possible," the statement said.

"Producers reported challenges accessing labour to assist with clean-up."

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