THANK YOU
Please accept our thanks for the extraordinary efforts of our people, contractors and growers right across the Seeka company. This first phase of the harvest has been successfully completed and is one of the most successful kiwistart periods in Seeka’s and our growers history.
The Seeka process was well thought out, well planned and professionally executed. In fact, the fruit came on a lot quicker than we had anticipated and our people coped. Communication across the Company was excellent – right through to contractors and growers. And at times our teams had to contend with changing priorities [like packing G14] and a few curve balls. For the record our people worked very long hours to get the job done and in many instances undertook extraordinary tasks [like working through the night to fix bin tips or data errors] to keep the show on the road. In our industry we do not have the luxury of steady and orderly start-ups – its full noise from the get go. All of your efforts are acknowledged and appreciated.
There was only one safety incident in the company that occurred when a tractor driver struck an object in the orchard. The steering wheel jerked violently striking and fracturing his wrist which was inside the wheel after impact. In spite of this accident our safety focus was good, but you are asked to remain vigilant.
To the statistics – Seeka packed approximately 1.909m trays of Hayward out of an industry total of 5.234m trays. Our actual market share of hayward at 36.5% compares to our expected total crop market share of 23.8%. Putting it in perspective – we have handled around 11% of our total green crop to date, and around 663k trays ahead of our market share. In doing so we pretty much gave our growers an un-interrupted harvest and we were orderly from the start.
In addition we packed approximately 62k trays of G14 representing 74% of the Industry submit of 85k trays.
My words cannot really express our gratitude for the extraordinary lengths all of our people including contractors, service providers and growers went to in order deliver this outcome but it is important that we do acknowledge it – please spread the word. Thank you.
Remember – accuracy not speed from here. This week we have an allocation of 551k trays for Hayward and the Client Relationship Managers and Harvest Schedulers are working through the line ups and coordinating with growers. Outside of this we are focusing on organics, 16a, G3 and G14.
Finally - a number of growers have expressed consternation and disappointment about the early cap closure by Zespri. This is a matter we will consider with Seeka Growers when we meet next. In the meantime we have reserved our position while we establish the facts and consider our position. Please feel free to talk to your CRM, or Seeka Grower Councillor if you have a view to express on this matter.
Kind regards and thanks again for the effort.
Michael
Seeka Key
Contacts