Frankly Speaking

FRANKLY SPEAKING - WEEK 6

Our team is busily fine-tuning our kiwifruit capacity plans as the New Zealand kiwifruit harvest approaches. Recent warm and wet weather is encouraging canopy growth and we are interested to understand any impact on dry matters. Our technical team is monitoring and we will continue to deliver our growers early information.

The current wet spell has disrupted the start of the kiwiberry harvest. The new berry packer equipped with camera grading technology, water flumes, robotics and high capacity punnetting is commissioned and ready to go. At full speed this machine is rated to pack 96 punnets per minute.

Our teams have completed a very successful avocado campaign, shipping has finished and the last of the fruit is being sold through in the market. Returns for those with a crop will simply be excellent, and at a level per tray that smashes all previous benchmarks. While there are always things to improve, we are delighted with the harvest and our team and thank our avocado growers for their help and support through the season. Average export returns are expected to exceed $39.50 per tray with early growers lower and later growers higher.

Seeka Growers

Seeka Grower’s met yesterday and there were a number of matters of business considered on behalf of Seeka supplying growers.

Firstly, Ian Greaves stepped down as chair and he had signalled his intention to do so at the last meeting. The Council elected Debbie Oakley as the incoming Chair having served as Deputy Chair in a transition role while Ian has been the Chairman. The Council thanked Ian for his service. Councillors are unpaid and donate their time. Ian has served growers and the council professionally, reviewed the Seeka Growers role, function and strategy. He has also encouraged open debate about Industry, supply and grower issues as well and encouraging proper stewardship of growers monies to the highest standard. Ian remains a member of the council.

On Friday the Dollar’s and Sense will have the full details of the payment. There have been a couple of calls asking for the Hayward Organic and Green 14 averages, the table below provides the average payment details by category.

The Council is concerned about the magnitude of the payment and questioned whether Zespri is operating the correct financial systems to maximise the distributions to growers as soon as possible particularly through the Christmas period. By contrast at the end of January, the Seeka Growers finance team had handled some $255m with a residual bank balance of $11k.

Finally the Grower Council received and endorsed the post-harvest pricing pack for 2018 and these details will flow out to our grower base shortly along with the contract.

Food Safety

Zespri have been working through the process of ensuring food safety and people safety including from the time of picking. Standards have been revised and we have met and worked through the new requirements with our contractor community to ensure this new standard is vigorously implemented. On the grower side, there are reasonable requirements for accessibility to clean toilets and hand washing facilities and good loadout areas. Zespri intend to audit growers throughout the harvest.

Gold 3 Monitoring

Monitor samples will be taken from all Gold3 MA’s in the week starting 26 February. The results from this monitoring will provide data which is used to plan harvest and provide feedback to growers on dry matter as well as maturity. Your CRM is the best person to raise any questions with regarding this.

Maturity Charges

One of the key changes endorsed yesterday by the Grower Council is a change in how we handle and pay for maturity charges. The Council has endorsed a monitor round for Hayward paid by the kiwistart grower pool at minimal cost so we get a line-up of early orchards. All other maturity samples and testing will be a grower direct charge. So the pooling effect of maturity charges is removed and costs fall where they lay.

Regards

Michael