Storm rips through tomatoes

The hail struck a 16ha tomato paddock, penetrating the plastic weed cover on the rows of the four- to six-week-old plants.

The 160,000 plants were shredded by the hail, leaving not one viable plant in the whole patch.

The field, planted out to varieties including Roma and Gourmet, destined for the fresh market, represented about one third of the owner’s tomato operations in the region.

The loss is expected to run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.