Hayward first-past-the-post closed at midnight last night, only the Hayward Organic supply cap remains open.
Seeka packed some 2.58m trays of Hayward conventional in this early part of the season or 33.9% of the Industry, well ahead of our 24% market share. Our average size was 32.33, slightly larger than the Industry average of 33.01. It’s a startling result given that our fruit is coming from the same regions as everyone else. The Company and growers benefit from guaranteed movement, freeing up space for mainpack growers in addition to delivering premium kiwistart earnings. Growers do however give up the potential for increased dry matter and late growth earnings. Packing of the Hayward Organic crop commenced last week and more kiwistart clearances starting to come through. Labour has continued to be a problem and some of our growers need to continue picking to maintain their labour pool. Some early crops have been clean, however we have seen lines of fruit with unusually high proportions of sooty mould and this may be a side effect of a dry summer.
Seeka has packed 4.18m trays of SunGold conventional or 20.8% of the Industry. The allocations are now closed and really we are waiting for mainpack clearances. Generally our fruit is colouring well and moving across the wharf. Immature SunGold fruit is challenging to colour – particularly in small sizes, and we have this phenomenon that the fruit tends to warm itself up even when in a Coolstore, if not managed correctly. We have had a number of growers contacting us to tell us they have achieved the kiwistart criteria, but the opportunity for kiwistart has gone! Our current harvest plan is to quietly pack our Hayward allocation which is largely lined up and to have our production capacity on standby for SunGold as it comes to full harvest maturity.
While we are satisfied with our performance and the service we have delivered our growers, there are always things we can improve. Our safety record is excellent given the stop start nature of the early part of the season. And I have long advocated a different approach to kiwistart, one which removes premiums paid on submit for premiums paid on loadout. I would note that most of the early fruit is not cured, is hot packed with numerous compromises to fruit quality and people’s safety. Our teams have worked long hard hours to get the job done, largely chasing artificial deadlines around getting fruit into store rather than in specification on a boat.
It all adds to the complexity of the moment.
To the numbers:
SunGold Conventional trays
| Industry packed 20.15m | Seeka 4.18m (20.5%) | |
| Average size | Industry 29.2 | Seeka 28.8 |
| Seeka in store | 1.7m | On order 0.787m |
SunGold Organic trays
| Industry packed 184k | Seeka 26k (14.35%) | |
| Average size | Industry 28.9 | Seeka 25.3 |
| Seeka in store | 20k | On order 23k |
Hayward Conventional trays
| Industry packed 7.6m | Seeka 2.58m (33.9%) | |
| Average size | Industry 33.01 | Seeka 32.33 |
| Seeka in store | 2.4m | On order 1.7m |
Hayward Organic trays
| Industry packed 20k | Seeka 11k (55.7%) | |
| Average size | Industry 35.8 | Seeka 34.3 |
| Seeka in store | nil | On order nil |
Sweet Green
| Industry packed 274k | Seeka 37k (13.5%) | |
| Average size | Industry 37.8 | Seeka 38.2 |
| Seeka in store | 37k | On order 36k |
Reminder that Seeka’s Annual Shareholder Meeting will be held at Seeka 360, Young Road, Te Puke this Friday 12 April at 2.30pm, followed by refreshments. We look forward to seeing you there.
Thank you for your efforts in the early start period of the season and for your fruit. Mainpack here we come.
Kind regards
Michael
Seeka Key
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