Welcome to this Frankly Speaking update where we bring you up to speed with the latest Seeka and Industry . Last week saw us farewell Annmarie Lee from Seeka. It was a great retirement send off for a tremendous Seeka person, one who is much admired by the Company, growers and business partners. Hopefully the heads have cleared.
Last week we distributed our individual grower forecasts, outlining our predictions of the likely returns for the current harvest year. We are genuinely pretty happy with the forecasts, and have tried this year to make them more sophisticated to give you a more accurate prediction, one less likely to swing later in the year. In saying that, our expectation is that there is likely to be more money coming for Hayward than forecast. In predicting the Hayward conventional fruit value forecast, Zespri has allowed for a total cost of quality of $1.29 per tray compared to $1.80 last year and $0.90 in a normal year. 2019 has delivered excellent Hayward fruit quality, the crop volume is down and selling well in the market with strong demand. Growers and post-harvest companies have combined to deliver an excellent supply chain and accordingly might expect that quality costs reduce in the next forecast and fruit value to increase. This will bring us a lot closer to the targeted $7.00 per tray at the commencement of the season.
Our minds are now turned towards 2020. Bud break is here, early commentary on the bud break is positive. Teams are working on the capacity plan. Our infrastructure is largely in place with the large builds at Oakside and Kerikeri complete, with a smaller phase two underway now at Kerikeri. Our planning indicates there is more than enough capacity for next year. Our capital base is set after last year’s capital restructuring and with shareholders due to be paid a $0.12 per share dividend on 9 October 2019.
To the numbers:
Seeka
Aongatete
Aongatete fruitloss excludes fruit under the insurance claim.
Kind regards
Michael
Seeka Key
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