Frankly Speaking

Frankly Speaking - Week 14
9 April 2018

Seeka is well into its early Hayward programme. The first-past-the-post period is likely to close in the next few days. Early Hayward maturities have come from regional area’s where we don’t usually see early kiwistart clearances. We have packed our market share and in particular have had good early Hayward organic clearances to complement our conventional programme. Generally, fruit quality has been good. In the Hayward conventional crop we have seen some reasonably flat and blocky fruit along with an incident of sooty mould. Clean lines have been appreciated as tired crews have pushed through to the Zespri midnight cut-off deadlines. They have appreciated the extra effort made by the harvest crews to ensure that super mature fruit [explosive softs] are left in the orchard.

The SunGold first-past-the-post supply cap has been completed and Seeka has worked its way through the allocated volume- in an orderly manner. We are now looking for mainpack clearances.
Weather is now set to disrupt our harvest process but is anticipated to deliver welcome cooler nights, expect to bring on Hayward maturities.

Totara Street Accident

We are sad to advise of the fatal accident on Saturday with a trucking contractor moving packed product between Huka Pak and Totara Street Store adjacent to the Ultimate Motor Group. The traffic had banked up from the lights and the truck travelling towards the Mount was turning right though the traffic to access the site on a busy Saturday morning. The truck as it moved through the traffic turning right collided with a scooter travelling on the inside of the traffic up the cycle lane with fatal consequences. Our people responded along with those in the vehicles adjacent to the accident. It’s a tragic event. Our heart-felt condolences to the family of the scooter rider and we have moved to support our people involved and the driver through the contracting company. Police attended the accident and both companies will conduct full safety reviews.

G3 licence Tender Deadline

The deadline for the tender for new SunGold G3 License is 5pm 11 April. Happy tendering.

To the numbers:

Hayward Conventional
Industry packed trays    3,648,555    Seeka packed trays    920,770 [25.2%]
Industry average size           30.18    Seeka average size        30.03
Seeka in-store                  920,770    On order                      493,314

Hayward Organic
Industry packed trays            86,796    Seeka packed trays    47,520 [54.7%]
Industry average size              34.65    Seeka average size      33.91
Seeka in-store                      
42,520    On order                            nil

SunGold Conventional
Industry packed trays      14,308,425    Seeka packed trays    2,632,498 [18.4%]
Industry average size               26.68    Seeka average size           25.87
Seeka in-store                   1,412,789    On order                     1,289,205

SunGold Organic
Industry packed trays             91,764    Seeka packed trays    46,293 [50.4%]
Industry average size               25.37    Seeka average size      24.52
Seeka in-store                        46,293    On order                      26,365

SweetGreen G14
Industry packed trays           626,790    Seeka packed trays    35,092 [5.6%]
Industry average size               35.24    Seeka average size      35.96
Seeka in-store                        35,092    On order                     25,149

Staffing

Thank you for responding to the call for people for our lab operations. While we still have vacancies, Tracy has been able to bring the lab up to its daily contracted sample volume.
Staffing numbers remain light across the business. We have enough to operate but don’t have the waiting list we normally would have, and our unfriendly shifts [night or grave yard] are tight for numbers. Our team have innovatively moved people around the business to ensure we deliver the promise. So if you know of people – please connect them.

Happy and safe harvesting. Thanks for your support.

Kind regards

Michael

Seeka Key
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