Welcome to this week’s Seeka grower and stakeholder update.
We are pleased to report that the SunGold harvest is well completed with 17.47m trays packed at Seeka and 5.47m trays packed at OPAC (including 2 x CA rooms). While the harvest dragged on, it really was only a small tail end volume and the team is satisfied with the quality. Our team made good use of the network of NIR equipment that we have on standby across our catchments providing the opportunity to try to recover some of the fruit that did not clear the dry matter standard on orchard through the maturity clearance. Thresholds were set for a higher dry matter threshold rather than the normal levels achieved this year. These machines are expensive to install, have a high annual rental fee and have sat largely idle for the last two years where dry matters have been high following drought. Many of our growers have benefited from the technology to good effect and we have largely resisted those growers who initially signed with other suppliers without NIR capacity from party hopping to Seeka late in the season. Just to remind you, NIR is provided at no extra cost to our growers (that’s just a bit of unashamed marketing).
The SunGold fruit was softer in the later stages of the harvest, however there has been good shipping volumes and opportunity for our inventory managers to optimise the inventory. Overall, it’s been a big effort and our focus is now well and truly on the Hayward as we chase the harvest down to the end. In relation to Hayward, we have packed some 10.54m trays of conventional and 590k trays of organic. We have around a combined 8m trays to go before we can draw a line under the harvest. Coolstore capacity has been well planned and we are keen to get on harvest understanding that we are struggling to hold onto the labour force. The RSE’s continue to be invaluable in supporting our dedicated local workforce in getting the job done.
There have been a number of safety alerts across the industry, and this seems to be typical for this stage of the harvest. While there have been no serious harm injuries reported, there have been some incidents that are the result of inattention and the industry is lucky to have avoided a worse outcome. Hand injuries are common. We must remain fundamentally focussed on safety.
Thank you to the numerous positive feedback messages and calls we got last week from the blog and the podcast from Scott Waldron. It certainly provided a balanced summary of the SunGold situation in China, the enormity of the plan and the significant risks involved.
To the numbers:
SunGold Conventional
|
Industry Submit: 99,530,155 trays |
Industry average size: 27.72 |
|
Seeka Submit: 17,469,715 trays |
Seeka average size: 27.8 |
SunGold Organic
|
Industry Submit: 2,513,187 trays |
Industry average size: 28.06 |
|
Seeka Submit: 424,216 trays |
Seeka average size: 29.11 |
Hayward Conventional
|
Industry Submit: 39,958,084 trays |
Industry average size: 32.41 |
|
Seeka Submit: 10,540,084 trays |
Seeka average size: 32.28 |
Hayward Organic
|
Industry Submit: 1,684,320 trays |
Industry average size: 34.69 |
|
Seeka Submit: 590,715 trays |
Seeka average size: 35.00 |
Sweet Green
|
Industry Submit: 261,467 trays |
Industry average size: 37.07 |
|
Seeka Submit: 58,278 trays |
Seeka average size: 37.59 |
Happy and safe harvesting.
Kind regards
Michael
Seeka Key
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