Welcome to this edition of Frankly Speaking – bringing our growers and stakeholders up to date with the latest at Seeka.
Operations continue to improve as the sheds settle into the new operating protocols with the 2m social distancing in place. Yesterday we profiled our labour shortage on TV1 and had a tremendous response. Over 500 people registered on our website since yesterday, and there were more than 130 phone calls. From these enquiries over 200 applied for a role and 100 people have been processed through the on-boarding systems which means that the employment officers at the sheds just need to call them in. It was a tremendous response to our shout out. Machine 1 at Oakside is underway and will be brought up to be able run 24 hours in the next few days, having all machines able to operate day and night shift is a key milestone for the teams.
Our throughputs have been a bit slower and therefore the switch over to SunGold this week has been a little delayed by some “indifferent lines” of Hayward. We have encountered some higher reject lines with shape, sooty mould and undersize the main culprits. Distancing protocols means we can only have one on the grader so teams have to slow the machines for these lines – slowing down through puts.
We are working through Easter. It is our aim to give the sheds their regular day off in the weekend but will be working Friday and Monday subject to fruit supply. There looks to be a weather event middle of next week and it’s our intention to buffer up enough SunGold and Hayward to continue packing through.
There has been massive load outs this week. Fruit is moving out smoothly to market. Zespri are calling for more layered fruit and our teams will do their best to meet market demand. Zespri need the Hayward allocations to be packed. We believe we can do this with the Transpack and Huka Pak Machine 2 dedicated to Hayward and all other machines on SunGold. Transpack can switch in and out of SunGold as required. Hayward fruit quality could trip us up, which is why capacity planning is being reviewed daily.
Extensive SunGold fruit sampling is being taken at packing in the sheds to ensure we understand the fruit characteristics for storage.
The teams are doing a good job. Orchards are scheduled up. Harvest crews operating very well. Sheds are settling into their work. We are on the pace with the capacity plans to deliver a timely close – all things being equal.
To the mid week numbers:
|
SunGold conventional trays |
Industry packed 26.7m |
Seeka 5.2m (19.5%) |
|
Average size |
Industry 29.4 |
Seeka 29.2 |
|
SunGold Organic trays |
Industry packed 331k |
Seeka 41k (12.4%) |
|
Average size |
Industry 29.9 |
Seeka 27.6 |
|
Hayward conventional trays |
Industry packed 8.0m |
Seeka 2.1m (27.2%) |
|
Average size |
Industry 33.7 |
Seeka 33.8 |
|
Hayward organic trays |
Industry 145k |
Seeka 11k (7.7%) |
|
Average size |
Industry 37.6 |
Seeka 37.6 |
|
Sweet Green trays |
Industry packed 121k |
Seeka nil |
|
Average size |
Industry 37.9 |
Seeka nil |
Seeka Key
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