Hawke's Bay's Bay Blueberries farm. Photo: Facebook / Bay Blueberries farm
A Hawke's Bay blueberry farm has had an entire crop, weighing hundreds of kilograms, stolen.
Bay Blueberries owner Marian Hirst said her team turned up to harvest the fruit, and found nothing on the bushes.
"It was ghastly," Hirst said. "And what it means is, our team is standing there with their work gone. The foreman, the assistant foreman, all planning to work, packhouse people, gate sales and markets, all those people don't have their work and their money."
At this time of year, it was a significant loss for the farm.
"It's our only fruit that we would have on the counter," Hirst said.
The thieves would have needed a couple of utes or a large van, and equipment to pick into, crates to carry it, and probably lights, she said.
They estimated it had happened over the space of a night, between the dates of 1 and 4 January.
There had been security measures in place, including locked gates, CCTV, and the Hirst's own residence not far away, but she said the thieves had avoided identification.
Hawke's Bay blueberry farm says it is short of blueberries after being targeted by thieves. Photo: Facebook / Bay Blueberries farm
The loss of work from the stolen crop had affected about a dozen people all up, as well as the income for her own family.
It had come on top of a rough couple of years, first with Covid-19, then Cyclone Gabrielle.
"We've stood up and pulled things together after a cyclone, we lost 70 percent of our crop last year, we're repairing infrastructure and making our plants healthy, and now someone's come in and done this," Hirst said. "We're resilient, but there is a limit."
It was not usually in the nature of the growers' community to speak up about thefts, but they were more common than people thought, she said.
In doing so, Hirst hoped someone might know something which would help police catch those responsible.
The thieves had stripped the bushes of all the fruit, even the unripe berries - and those would turn up for sale somewhere, she said.
"It will be unpleasant to eat, it's of no value. I'm hoping that someone will think, 'Oh, this could be that fruit'."