The 2023 Maitland Show produce competition is heading for disaster due to the varroa mite outbreak

The varroa mite outbreak has decimated the horticulture program, leaving organisers scrambling to boost entries in other areas and work out how to create a noteworthy display.

The 62 classes that usually appear in the produce section have been reduced to 30.

With registered honey bee hives in the red zone being eradicated - and wild hives being targeted with a baiting program - pumpkins, squashes, watermelons, sweet melons and beans - to name a few - won't produce a harvest.

All of these rely on pollination and alternate pollinators like hover flies and butterflies are terribly unreliable.

"It's a desperate situation. The produce section is severely affected. I'm really worried about what entries will come in," Maitland Show's horticulture chief steward Amorelle Dempster said.

"We'll hardly have anything."

In other news:

The show's annual schedule is fixed and cannot be changed.

School children were lined up to join the judges for the first time in a bid to learn about the wide range of produce that is grown in the area. Now that plan has also hit a snag.

"I wanted to have a very big range, I wanted them to come and to see the wide range of produce we grow here and the amazing biodiversity we have," Ms Dempster said.

Ms Dempster has reached out to growers in Inverell and Tamworth to see if she can bring some of their produce to the show to create a striking display in the McDonald Pavilion. Pumpkins and watermelons are among the items on her list.

"If we have to bring it from outside the region so people can enjoy the beautiful produce then that is what we will do," she said.

"Our display last year was very popular and people were amazed by all the wonderful things our farmers are growing."

The flora classes in the horticulture competition and the honey section will also take a considerable hit. Local honey bottled before the mite invasion could make an appearance but that section will mostly rely on producers outside the red zone.

The varroa mite was detected in sentinel hives at the Port of Newcastle on June 22.

Since then it has spread within the Hunter region to an area bordering The Branch and Tea Gardens in the north; Glendon Brook, Glendon and North Rothbury in the west and Ellalong, Olney, Toronto and Belmont in the south.

There are also red zones in parts of the Upper Hunter and Mid North Coast.

The red zone was expanded last week after a positive case on a property near Lochinvar.

"The show is an important tool to teach people about what we grow here and we still want to be able to offer those lessons even at a time when our farmers aren't able to produce their usual range of crops," Ms Dempster said.

She encouraged the city to support the show and help fill the pavilion with self-pollinating entries. Some of the items they could enter include tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, carrots and corn.

"We won't have 13 classes of pumpkin and squashes, but we will have tomatoes and leafy greens and chilli," she said.

Entries close on February 13.

Click here for the entry form and details about the classes.