Hawke's Bay's Rural Advisory Group has set up what it's called, the War Room with Federated Farmers, Beef and Lamb, bankers, insurance companies, wine, apiculture, and fruit and vege representatives all sharing intel in a 'situation room' tucked away in Havelock North.
"We are only now getting the full picture two weeks on from Cyclone Gabrielle," Jonathan Bell of the East Coast Rural Support Trust told Newshub when we visited.
The full economic impact of Cyclone Gabrielle on these sectors is only now being understood.
"We really appreciate the support we are getting. We are trying to gather vital information from vegetable growers, apiculture, fruit and wine growers to send higher up the chain to MPI and central government about how serious the situation is," said RAG chairperson Karen Phillips.
New Zealand's two major processors of fruit and vegetables, for instance, estimate only 30 percent of their Hawke's Bay crops remain.
"We've lost some really big areas, 2500 hectares of crop initially. If we extrapolate that out into terms people can understand, that's 25km long by 1km wide of fresh and processed vegetables flooded," Hawke's Bay Vegetable Growers Association's Scott Lawson told Newshub.
It's a $40 million hit, just to the vegetable sector.
Hawke's Bay and Tairawhiti produce 90 percent of all Zealand's sweetcorn, 80 percent of the country's beans come from Hawke's Bay, 100 percent of butternut pumpkins are bound for Watties soup and 100 percent of New Zealand's processed tomatoes all come from Hawke's Bay.
There is already a supply buffer with processed tomatoes and onions but fresh sweetcorn and squash will be off the menu for some time.
Beans will need to be imported.
"They will be replaced with imported produce and the last thing we want to see is the imported [items] replacing us in the future," Lawson said.
He said now the future focus is on regenerating soil for his industry's crops and planting again by spring.
But sheep and beef farmers like Rob Poulton may need to revert to how people used to work in the pioneering days after he lost access to bridges on his Patoka farm.
Droving stock out across rivers may be the only option for farmers like him to get them off to the works and saleyards.
"It's going back to the old days. We'll do what we've got to do!" said Poulton when Newshub visited. He needs to get 500 lambs a month, plus cattle too, onto stock trucks between March and July.
"Cattle are easier than sheep, we can get them across the rivers," Poulton said.
Officials back at the War Room confirm "anything is on the table, we may need to get creative" to get stock to the sales or processing plants. Leaving them on the farm becomes an animal welfare issue.
"We will probably see shuttling of stock on smaller trucks to an area where we can load them up with bigger trucks, but yeah, driving could be on its way back," Jonathan Bell of the East Coast Rural Support Trust said.
Detours for stock or produce, whichever way you look at it, will cost the consumer.
Freight companies have indicated there will be a 30 percent increase in their costs.
