Over the past week, there have been reports of the first SunGold clearance. The season looks earlier than last year and in the case of SunGold very early. Dry matters in both Hayward and SunGold are ahead of last year and sizing in both larger, with SunGold likely to be very large.
We are geared up and ready. Seeka has held its operational planning meeting where the team reviews the planned harvest, packing configuration and coolstore logistics. The capital building projects are on time. Our capacity is set. Recruitment is well underway and the RSE programmes are finalised with the 470 overseas workers scheduled to complement our New Zealand and back packer workforce.
Seeka is ready to deliver our growers a professional and timely harvest. During the week, Zespri have released significant increases to the fruit value payments for the 2016 selling season. The level of increase is startling, especially so late in the season. The average resulting increases to the Seeka Growers orchard gate returns per tray are as follows:
| Per tray | Per hectare | |||
| Hayward conventional | $4.35 | + $0.15 | $54,630 | + $1,886 |
| Hayward organic | $6.23 | + $0.29 | $55,455 | + $2,542 |
| G14 Sweetgreen | $5.35 | + $0.09 | $37,611 | + $661 |
| SunGold | $8.58 | + $0.26 | $106,732 | + $3,183 |
| Zespri Gold 16a | $4.63 | + $0.20 | $59,430 | + $2,552 |
Our individualised forecast will be sent out to you later this week.
Kiwiberry
The kiwiberry harvest is underway. The early Marju Red variety of kiwiberry has commenced packing and the first pallets are on their way to the USA. Total kiwiberry volumes are expected to be more than double the 2016 volume at around 150,000 trays [each of 1.5kgs]. Seeka has upgraded its punneting line based at Oakside to handle this increased volume. Freshmax and Seeka have combined to set in place optimal market plans, despite the China market remaining closed. New markets have been further developed in the USA to complement the Australian, Taiwan and Singapore markets for this exciting product. We are confident about the prospects for kiwiberry with increasing volumes coming on line.
G14 – not too pool
Further to our previous update, Zespri have u-turned and announced that the PVR variety G14 Sweet Green will stay in its own pool and not be pooled with Hayward. But there is a catch as now the variety must stand on its own feet. Demand has been identified in Japan and Europe. This demand is only early and Zespri wants this fruit be available for shipping on the first vessels to each of these markets. Failure to achieve this is likely to see the demand reduce. Zespri is discussing with the product group how they will incentivise and reward growers who supply to match this demand.
Enduring Margin
The industry has been working on setting the enduring margin. Seeka and Eastpack have combined to work with NZKGI to deliver a margin that can be in place for the next five years, with the ability for review should Zespri’s profitability fall outside a normal range. A margin calculation has been suggested and Zespri are currently considering this proposal. The team expects to hear back in the near future.
Kind regards
Michael
Seeka Key
Contacts