Banana farmer to go without income for year after cyclone damage

For four weeks Sarvan Singh has salvaged what fruit he can from the floor of his banana plantation in the Tweed Valley.

Highly destructive winds ripped through his 8-hectare farm on the Cudgen plateau last month, knocking plants with full bunches to the ground.

It has left him without an income for the next year.

Mr Singh said the winds were too much for half of his 20,000 trees, which he had tied and propped up.

Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred impacted 116 hectares of banana plantations in NSW. (ABC Rural: Kim Honan)

He said he had lost about 90 per cent of his production.

"The plants at the back won't bunch until the same time next year, so as far as anything for me to get production out of in the next six or seven months, I wouldn't have 1,000 plants," he said.

Bigger punch this time

It was the third time Mr Singh's plantation had been hit by an ex-cyclone in a decade, but Alfred delivered a far bigger punch than Debbie and Oma in 2017 and 2019.

With very little fruit left to salvage, Mr Singh has tried to rescue immature fruit by covering it with banana leaves and bags and protecting the bunches until they ripened.

"Hopefully in three weeks' time I'll get half a bunch," he said.

"But the quality of that fruit, I would not be able to send to Sydney markets or Melbourne markets.

Mr Singh is trying to salvage bananas from his damaged plantation. (ABC Rural: Kim Honan)

"I'll get away with a little bit to my local fellows.

"I don't even know whether I can get 50 cents out of them, that's how bad it is."

Mr Singh has been chopping up plants and leaving them to decay in the orchard.

For the past two years he has won blue ribbons at the Sydney Royal Easter Show for his fruit, but now a trifecta is out of the question.

"They rang me up, can I send bananas to the Easter Show again," he said.

"Nup, everything's on the ground."

Mr Singh's banana farm at Cudgen in northern NSW was extensively damaged. (ABC Rural: Kim Honan)

Tourism orchard smashed

Less than 10 minutes' drive to the west of Mr Singh, Tropical Fruit World also suffered extensive damage to its banana plantation.

The agri-tourism facility is home to more than 500 fruit varieties on nearly 90 hectares.

It was closed to the public for at least five days.

Farm supervisor Joey Smith said the bananas and avocados had copped it the most.

"We experienced probably 110kph wind gusts," he said.

"Being up here on the hill at Duranbah we're very exposed to the wind, so we got the full force of that."

Joey Smith says the full cost of damage from ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred is still being assessed. (ABC Rural: Kim Honan)

Plants facing the southern parts of the farm bore the full brunt of the winds.

He said staff were busy salvaging what they could from the orchards, harvesting about 500 kilograms of bananas.

But the fruit was bruised and damaged.

"The custard apples they held on, unfortunately very bruised, and the same with the black sapote, and that's two crops we were just about to harvest," Mr Smith said.

Cyclone-proof farms

Mr Smith said the facility was looking at growing trees that were lower to the ground so they were less impacted by the winds.

"Cyclone-resistant varieties and keeping the trees small, harvesting what you can before the cyclone event, makes a big difference," he said.

Bananas for sale at Tropical Fruit World before ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred. (ABC Rural: Kim Honan)

The NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development said the banana industry had self-reported 116 hectares of banana plantations had been impacted by the cyclone as of Friday.

A department spokesperson said about 1.6 million kilograms of banana produce had been damaged or destroyed across five NSW local government areas.

While the damage across North Coast banana orchards was extensive, it was unlikely to affect prices due to NSW being a smaller market compared to Queensland.