Seeka has successfully and safely commenced kiwifruit harvest and packing operations for 2016. At the end of the week our team had packed 362k trays of G3 and loaded out 91k trays with 271k trays in store awaiting shipment. There is no Hayward cleared and we anticipate the first clearances around Thursday or Friday of this week.
We are slightly behind our capacity plan which had us planned to process 417k trays last week and 1.4m this week. Our clearances are still a little hand to mouth. There have been some important learnings this season:
1.The Agfirst Reports for G3 are a little confusing. Firstly please remember that once a size has met a dry matter maturity criteria then it remains "eligible" for harvest irrespective of any subsequent tests. If in a subsequent test the dry matter results for any size does not achieve the dry matter criteria, then the previous “eligible” result stands for that size. For example you can have the first test result clear for dry matter in the large sizes and the second test fail all sizes and the second sample result will say it is a fail. In this case for the maturity area the first sample result stands for the dry matter in the sizes which had previously cleared.
There have been issues with the communication of this status in the front page reporting from Agfirst. Section 2 of the Agfirst report should summarise the status of the sample and section 5 identifies sizes that are eligible, including the “inherited” results in the “inherited from" line of the table.
2.The timing of the Agfirst results are challenging. A number of growers have understandably had maturity tests undertaken just prior to harvest in an attempt to get small sizes cleared, or increase their TZG. When packing commences we will be using the latest maturity test available when we pack to set pack plans and the sizes we do pack. If a test result arrives after packing then simply it is too late to pack the additional sizes that may have subsequently cleared.
3.The AgFirst results have contained some anomalies. We have had the full range of unusual results this year including negative dry matters. It seems that the system wasn’t fully tested prior to the season commencing. To be fair to Agfirst a number of changes have been made late in the season but we shouldn’t have had the number of errors that we have experienced. Thankfully it rained at a critical moment which meant we did not lose production over the errors.
Green 14 (HE)
The Green 14 programme requires the supply of fruit during Period 1. Growers are reminded that there is a clearance dispensation for orchards which are experiencing fruit drop and need to harvest. There are conditions associated to the Green 14 clearance criteria, so your CRM will be able to assist if you have any questions.
To the numbers:
| SunGold | |
| Packed Trays | 362,108 |
| Shipped Trays | 91,248 |
| In Store | 270,860 |
| Average Size | 28.49 (Industry 28.3) |
| On order week 13 | Everything! |
Safety
Unfortunately we have had our first serious harm injury for the year. We received a suction floor sweeper at Oakside that had blocked hoses. Our staff used the high pressure water blaster [3000 psi] to clear the hoses and in the process the person holding the hose slipped. The high pressure water water hit the persons hand near the webbing by between the thumb and fore-finger and exiting out the index finger and the back pressure water flowed back up the operators arm. Hospitalisation was required, but no lasting injury and corrective actions put in place after a full safety investigation. But it’s a simple mistake that reminds us all of the need to be vigilant when it comes to safety.
Happy and safe harvesting.
Michael
Seeka Key
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