Welcome to our latest grower and stakeholder update – bringing you up to date with Seeka’s latest grower and industry . The weather has brought a break in the harvest, and we will have about three harvest days left to complete both the New Zealand and Australian Hayward harvests. Brix’s and fruit pressure remains good.
Fruit continues to load out well to the market across all varieties, quality remains good and there are no quality issues worthy of remark at this stage.
At this moment Seeka has an abundance of labour available having transferred over 260 RSE workers from the Hawkes Bay to our regions (Bay of Plenty, Coromandel, Northland) and we are currently training those workers or making them available to our contractors. These Pacific Island workers had finished their programme in the apple industry, couldn’t go home and simply were available. We have adopted the approach and attitude to take as many as possible, reflecting the sentiment “how can the horticulture industry ask the Government for RSE workers next year if we don’t collectively look after them this year”. If you are looking for labour, then we have them.
The final payment information from Zespri for the 2019 year is delayed due to the timing of their Board meeting. We should have the last of the payments to you by 15 June. We apologise for the delay but the cause of it is outside our hands.
Last Friday, the Industry met to consider the maturity and taste system going forward. Seeka had taken the opportunity to talk to the Seeka Growers Council prior to the meeting, seeking growers views. Zespri were looking for three things at the meeting including, the support to go and commission new software to manage the maturity and taste system, the support to request proposals from potential independent maturity testing providers and samplers, and feedback about whether or not subgroups needed to be formed to consider key attributes around taste. There was good alignment at the meeting, really a system is needed to act as a “data warehouse” to collate the information around clearances as and when they happen, and that should be at Zespri. But the idea that independent maturity testing providers and samplers was precipitous. There would appear to be a consensus amongst the growers and suppliers that while rewarding and encouraging better tasting fruit is important, we need to do it as simply and efficiently as possible. The previous graduated system was over complicated and the feedback we have received from our growers and grower council is that there is no support to head back to it. We will see how we go with meetings scheduled over the next coming weeks.
Seeka Growers Economic Update
Seeka has booked the Governor of the Reserve Bank to provide our growers and stakeholders with an update on monetary policy and the economy. This will be via zoom as Adrian Orr will be in Wellington providing the update. If you don’t have zoom then you will be able to attend at one of our sites including Seeka360. We will need you to RSVP and indicate whether you will zoom in or attend in person at one of our sites. If you want to attend by zoom in then we will send you an invite with the link to the presentation. A registration email will be sent out soon, or register your interest with your Client Relationship Manager.
You will have the opportunity to ask questions, but all questions will need to be asked prior to the meeting and we will coordinate the questions through to Adrian.
To the numbers:
| SunGold conventional trays | Industry packed 86.3m | Seeka 15.9m (18.5%) |
| Average size | Industry 29.72 | Seeka 29.61 |
| Seeka in store | 7.2m | On order 958k |
| SunGold Organic trays | Industry packed 1.4m | Seeka 153k (10.5%) |
| Average size | Industry 30.10 | Seeka 29.36 |
| Seeka in store | 32k | On order 4k |
| Hayward conventional trays | Industry packed 55.7m | Seeka 13.6m (24.5%) |
| Average size | Industry 33.62 | Seeka 33.43 |
| Seeka in store | 7.5m | On order 1.2m |
| Hayward Organic trays | Industry packed 2.3m | Seeka 659k (28.2%) |
| Average size | Industry 37.08 | Seeka 37.19 |
| Seeka in store | 390k | On order 64k |
| Sweet Green trays | Industry packed 269k | Seeka 18.4k (6.8%) |
| Average size | Industry 37.72 | Seeka 36.98 |
| Seeka in store | Nil | On order nil |
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