Frankly Speaking

 Frankly Speaking – Week 12 Update

Our 2014 harvest has commenced. First Hayward clearances were achieved at the end of week 11 and packing commenced last week. Operations have commenced smoothly and we have no safety issues or incidents to report. Please be vigilant.

The first clearances were achieved in the Waihau Bay area and the Matakana, Matapihi and Tauranga catchments. Since then we have had clearances in Te Puke and Coromandel. We are now well underway. All packhouses are open with the exception of Northland. So KKP, Transpack, Oakside, Huka Pak, Main Road and Peninsula are all open and packing.  There is a good flow of fruit in this first week.

Early season fruit quality has been nothing short of tremendous – thank you. Average size is 32.12 and rejects at 10%. There have been a couple of lines with softs and I would ask growers to be vigilant and talk to your relationship manager if you see quality issues in the orchard.  The large size profile is creating packing challenges because Zespri has with a high requirement for single layer trays for the early China and Japan markets which slows the machines. Nevertheless, after last season, it’s a nice problem to have! Last weekend KKP packed a line with average size 29 and 6% rejects – last year it didn’t handle any lines of that average size.

In the case of G14 – we have some lines harvested and about to be packed. These lines have achieved the N clearance protocol but there have been cases of fruit drop which have encouraged us to get on and harvest the fruit in spite of no Kiwistart premiums. In some cases we have had very soft fruit on the machine and so getting such lines picked and packed is the best we can do.

The statistics:

Hayward

Seeka Packed:                268,640 trays

Industry Packed:              294,308 trays [Seeka = 91.2%]

Average reject rate:        10.36%

Average size:                     32.12

Loaded out :                       zero [orders for week 13 approximately 180,000 trays]

Cap Status

Clearances are dynamic and please talk to your relationship manager if you would like a current update.

Hayward

First past the post cap:                 6.5M

Industry packed to date:               294,308 trays

Cleared to date:                          2,874,000 trays

Seeka clearances:                     1,300,000 trays

Hort 16a

First past the post cap:                  1.5M Japan/.5M ROW trays

Industry packed to date:              256,000 trays

Cleared to date:                             680k Japan/93k ROW trays

Seeka Clearances                          20,000 trays

Green Organics

First past the post cap:                  670,000

Industry packed to date:              zero trays

Cleared to date:                            zero trays

Seeka Clearances                        zero trays

Kiwistart rates (incl taste compensation)

Week 13              $2.90     $2.90     $3.66     $3.66     $4.33     $4.33       $3.12     $1.58     $0.00

Week 14              $2.13     $2.13     $2.70     $2.70     $3.19     $3.19       $2.30     $1.16     $0.00

Week15               $1.49     $1.49     $1.89     $1.89     $2.24     $2.24       $1.61     $0.81     $0.00

Week 16              $0.98     $0.98     $1.24     $1.24     $1.47     $1.47       $1.06     $0.53     $0.00

Week 17              $0.57     $0.57     $0.72     $0.72     $0.86     $0.86       $0.61     $0.30     $0.00

Week 18              $0.16     $0.16     $0.20     $0.20     $0.23     $0.23       $0.17     $0.09     $0.00

Close

It is still a long way to go in the season but we have opened early and opened well. The only low-light is Transit who clearly decided that this is the most appropriate week to undertake major road-works in Te Puke.  Just another unnecessary challenge to contend with.  Happy and safe harvesting.

Michael