Welcome to our week 15 update. The first-past-the-post period has now closed for Hayward conventional. We appreciate the work that all our pickers, contractors, staff and growers have done through this period of chasing supply caps and mid-night cut offs. The cold nights delivered an abundance of Hayward clearances and collectively the teams combined to maximise the crop packed within the deadline with the overhang falling into the allocated volumes.
The supply cap for Hayward organic is likely to be closed in the next few days, and we are awaiting Zespri’s determination. The Gold conventional contract allocation finished last Thursday night and we now move to harvesting the Mainpack clearances.
I repeat my advice from the same time in previous years, there must be a better safer way to organise the early part of the season which would result in a safer profile, more orderly harvest and better quality fruit delivered to the market.
There were two significant safety events in the company last weekend as we pushed to meet the deadline. In the first on Friday night, a person scanning bins fell between the scanning platform and the loaded truck. She has badly bruised her leg and is recovering. In the second incident on Saturday a truck driver was clipped and cleaned out by a forklift moving unloaded pallets on the deck. The driver was shaken but ok. The driver of a truck which had finished unloading was closing the curtains when he was struck by a forklift. Both incidents were avoidable with some excuse with the pressure that our crews have been under through this time. They are a reminder to all of us that we must take care.
We have also received a number of calls regarding the Eurofins notification of sampling. If you have any concerns about any of the Eurofins sampling process please let your CRM know and we can raise these with Eurofins on your behalf.
The Hayward brix, TZG and dry matter average are all tracking well compared to previous seasons, with the brix levels currently 0.2 higher than they were at the same time last year.
Gold3 maturity is now heading towards the main pack criteria with brix’s about the 8 brix level with more recent tests at a 9 brix average. Colour appears to be moving as has been predicted and dry matter is looking ok but not spectacular [the average between 0.6 and 0.75]. Fruit growth and dry matter accumulation are slowing. This is attributed to the time of year and the end of the girdling effect. The team are keeping a close eye on fruit firmness as we have seen this start to decline corresponding with the brix rise. Harvesting at the optimal maturity is important and we will be continuing to monitor the crop and your CRM can discuss with you where your crops maturity is at.
There is a supply premium for all fruit supplied to Japan in weeks 16 and 17. All fruit shipped to Japan will earn a $150.00 per pallet premium. To supply Japan the fruit must be Y or T band and have market access ok for Japan.
The weather continues to play its part in disrupting harvest as the teams schedule around the rain to ensure we optimise our harvesting capacities. Labour continues to be short in both the orchard and packhouse, if you know anyone who is interested in working please let our teams know.
Hayward Conventional
Industry packed trays 10,470,789 Seeka packed trays 2,680,755 [25.6%]
Industry average size 30.23 Seeka average size 29.62
Seeka in-store 2,327,951 On order 1,608,852
Hayward Organic
Industry packed trays 278,881 Seeka packed trays 86,896 [31.2%]
Industry average size 34.65 Seeka average size 32.63
Seeka in-store 92,034 On order 86,146
SunGold Conventional
Industry packed trays 18,068,443 Seeka packed trays 3,124,156 [17.3%]
Industry average size 26.71 Seeka average size 25.96
Seeka in-store 1,160,772 On order 921,511
SunGold Organic
Industry packed trays 91,765 Seeka packed trays 46,293 [50.4%]
Industry average size 25.37 Seeka average size 24.52
Seeka in-store 20,007 On order 16,280
SweetGreen G14
Industry packed trays 626,957 Seeka packed trays 35,092 [5.0%]
Industry average size 35.28 Seeka average size 35.96
Seeka in-store 15,010 On order 5,177
Happy and safe harvesting. Thanks for your support.
Regards
Michael
Seeka Key
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