Frankly Speaking – Week 16 Update
Please accept this Grower Update to the end of week 16 [Sunday 19 April].
The weather has played its part in disrupting the harvest for the last few days and we are looking forward to some settled weather to get on with it. Seeka is over the top of its Hayward weekly allocations and in fact has packed its week 17 allocation already and has moved into its week 18 allocation. The Hayward organic first-past-the-post cap remains open with the Industry having packed 560k trays to date of an allocated cap of 980k trays.
Seeka packed its modified maturity allocation of Gold 3 and now has sufficient fruit of mainpack maturity to get on with as the weather allows.
The Hort 16A first-past-the-post cap remains open. The target for the Industry is 1.5M trays and the Industry has packed 1.32M as of last night.
We now have G9 clearances scheduled for harvest. On behalf of Seeka Growers, we have asked for the marketing and shipping plans from Zespri for G9 to ensure an orderly process of pick, pack and ship rather than pick, pack and delay. Zespri will come to the next Seeka Growers meeting to outline their plans. To date Seeka has no shipping orders for G9.
Operations continue to be smooth. There has been a coolstore issue at Main Road Katikati – which we have moved to rectify. No growers will be financially affected. Those growers involved have been contacted and advised. In the scheme of things it’s a small issue which I mention only for completeness.
Our teams have been closely analysing the packed versus estimated volumes for completed orchards and now expect our Hayward crop to be up by between 5% and 10%. Thankfully, all things being equal, we have the coolstore capacity in place to cope with this increased peak load.
There have been two nasty accidents, both in packhouses and both hand injuries. While not strictly classified as serious harm they were nasty. On both occasions our people have had their hands caught either in a belt or moving rollers. The belt incident resulted in a nasty cut requiring medical treatment. The staff involved are valued and conscientious but the accidents were avoidable and both reflect fatigue and inattention. It’s a timely reminder that safety must be our priority. At this time of year there are a lot of movements, a lot of activity and long hours worked and we must all be attentive to the safety of ourselves and others in both orchards and packhouses.
The statistics as at midnight Sunday 19 April:
Hayward
Seeka packed 3,994,368 trays Industry packed 13,215,421 trays [30%]
Seeka average size 33.27 Industry average size 33.34
Shipped 2,357,262 trays In-store 1,637,106 trays
On order for week 17 954,876 trays
On order for week 18 131,941 trays
Hayward quality continues to be excellent. Yields are up on estimate and Seeka is now predicting [and planning for] higher than estimated volumes. Our week 17 allocated volumes [including committed supply] of 591,577 trays has been packed, and so far 71,277 of the week 18 allocation of 483,646 trays has been packed. After that we are waiting for mainpack.
Hayward organic
Seeka packed 186,602 trays Industry packed 559,047 trays [33.4%]
Seeka average size 34.37 Industry average size 35.22
Shipped 14,012 trays In-store 172,590 trays
On order for week 17 38,787 trays
On order for week 18 4,471 trays
The cap remains open and our team is chasing more fruit. The first-past-the-post cap for Hayward Organic is 980k trays.
G14
Seeka packed 183,078 trays Industry packed 1,058,773 [17%]
Seeka average size 36.19 Industry average size 35.85
Shipped 77,208 trays In-store 105,870 trays
On order for week 17 31,776 trays
On order for week 18 16,191 trays
Our strategy with G14 remains to pick at Protocol N, pack and ship.
G3
Seeka packed 1,497,660 trays Industry packed 8,854,891 [17%]
Seeka average size 29.29 Industry average size 29.69
Shipped 1,014,402 trays In store 483,258 trays
On order for week 17 273,803 trays
On order for week 18 11,208 trays
Good volumes of mainpack maturity fruit in front of us.
G3 Organic
Seeka packed 19,798 trays Industry packed 51,073 [39%]
Seeka average size 25.11 Industry average size
Shipped 13,168 trays In store 6,630 trays
On order for week 17 2,769 trays
On order for week 18 2,887 trays
Really nice fruit thank you.
Hort 16a
Seeka packed 101,906 trays Industry packed 1,325,166 trays [8%]
Seeka average size 31.53 Industry average size 31.38
Shipped 17,249 trays In store 84,657 trays
Other updates:
Oakside Recovery: The wall between the central coolstores and the North Shed has been replaced. The roof on room 3 [which is not a priority] is going back on and the panels for the container docks are being put up. The roof for the curtain-sider load-out area is on. This is rapidly coming together.
Water Source Alert
I advised last week of a significant and seemingly malicious incident where a grower’s water source used to fill sprayers was contaminated. I can now confirm that herbicides have been positively detected in the water in high concentrations. Police are investigating this very unusual event. In assessing your own risk profile it would be sensible to take reasonable efforts to secure your water source.
Supply Chain
There have been significant issues in the supply chain this year. By this I am specifically referring to the process of obtaining Zespri orders, looking into our inventory and loading the correct inventory to obtain the best market presentation of your fruit to enable the marketer to extract the best price and returns for growers. Of course in doing so, Suppliers like Seeka must select the right lines, taking into account such things as market restrictions, packaging, taste, size, firmness and colour. This is not as easy as sounds and we have a dedicated team who work alongside the team at Zespri to facilitate the ships being loaded in a timely fashion. This year there have been some significant changes primarily around a new computer programme which has failed to deliver the fundamentals. There is also a new management regime at Zespri who are improving their operational knowledge as the season advances. Finally, all of this has not been helped by the underperformance of the Agfirst lab.
Both the Seeka and Zespri operational teams have made huge efforts to achieve the current loadouts and they should be acknowledged for their efforts. Often when systems and leadership fail its typically left to those on the ground to get the job done.
I feel we have been short changed when people describe our current supply chain as “World Class” - perhaps “Third World Class” may be more appropriate?
Kind regards
Michael
Seeka Key
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