Frankly Speaking

Frankly Speaking - Week 20
23 May 2018

Welcome to our week 20 update. The weather continues to be patchy. We are attending to the harvest of the last of the Zespri SunGold which have struggled to meet the maturity criteria. Our teams are looking forward to the conclusion of the harvest SunGold campaign.

Our Kerikeri operation is now fully integrated into the Seeka business, they are harvesting and processing mandarins and ENZAGOLD for T&G and will switch to Hayward later this week. The transition to Seeka management of the business has occurred seamlessly and is a credit to the Kerikeri people and our own integration teams.

In the other regions, our attention is on the Hayward harvest including organic and conventional. The brix levels for Hayward appear lower than we would usually expect for this time of year and are climbing slowly, most probably reflecting warm weather. This is set to change next week with a forecasted southerly change. This might lead us to slow the harvest, but we are equally conscious of fruit pressure and time on the vine. We are continuing with harvest so as not to compromise the maturity of the remaining unharvested crop. Adding to this situation is that our Hayward volumes are up on estimate and we are printing more bin cards. For these reasons, we are pushing on with harvest.

The first of the feedback from the markets has commented that the fruit tastes better than last year. With the increased volume of Zespri SunGold and Hayward, the markets have been challenged to lift their run rates rather than running the season longer. Cumulative market delivery numbers show that to the end of week 19 SunGold deliveries are ahead of last year with Hayward delivery numbers tracking at a similar level compared to last year.

To the numbers [week ended midnight 20 May 2018]:

SunGold Conventional

Industry Packed     64,375,050             Seeka Packed    10,423,068     [16%]    
Industry average size       27.35            Seeka average size    26.82       
Loaded out               4,567,847            In store     5,855,221        
On order [next 2 weeks]    741,382

SunGold Organic

Industry Packed            851,163             Seeka Packed     133,723     [15%]
Industry average size        27.50            Seeka average size 25.64            
Loaded out                      77,763            In store      55,959          
On order [next 2 weeks]      21,405

Hayward conventional

Industry Packed      29,727,400            Seeka Packed    8,190,884     [27%]
Industry average size       30.21            Seeka average size   29.68            
Loaded out               5,101,775            In store     3,089,108    
On order [next 2 weeks]  1,200,455

Hayward Organic

Industry Packed          1,277,403             Seeka Packed            403,584   [31%]
Industry average size         33.47             Seeka average size        34.10
Loaded out                     166,499            In store               237,085
On order [next 2 weeks]       76,504

Sweetgreen G14

Industry Packed          890,616             Seeka Packed              52,351   [6%]
Industry average size       35.36            Seeka average size         35.99
Loaded out                    52,351            In store                         0
On order [next 2 weeks]         0
All done. Successfully completed thanks

As we move into the last three weeks of harvest please keep focused on your own and others safety.

Happy and safe harvesting

Kind regards

Michael

Seeka Key
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