Frankly Speaking – Week 19 Update
Please accept this Grower Update to the end of week 19 [Sunday 10 May].
The harvest developed good momentum last week aided by good weather. Our harvesting teams have largely completed the G3 harvest with only a few orchards in the Bay of Plenty left to go. Our picking and packing has now largely moved into Hayward. Seeka packed more than 500k trays per day of Hayward through the back half of last week and was able to give our post-harvest crews days off in the weekend to allow the canopies to refill.
Fruit quality continues to be excellent, particularly in Hayward. As we started reporting a few weeks ago we are seeing increased volumes in Hayward and have put in place extra coolstorage to handle this volume. Zespri has put in place a slow boat to Europe [via South America] and while Seeka may put some fruit on that vessel, it’s really been put in place for those who haven’t planned for this contingency. Seeka remains well above its planned run-rate and above its market share for packed Hayward at the end of the week. Our percentage share of Hayward packed was 31% compared to our market share of 24%. We are on target to complete mainpack around the 7th June which is the same time as we did in 2014.
There have been a couple of safety incidents. At Kerikeri, the bin tip operator caught his hand between the bin and a cross member tearing the skin on his fingers. He required surgery to tie down the loose material in what was a nasty incident. At Oakside a Quality Controller sprained and bruised her ankle after being clipped by a forklift. This later incident has led to a complete review of movements in and around our machines at the site.
Seeka is now into full fruit flow and looking to pack the remaining 50% of its 2015 crop, which includes our CA program, over the next 3 weeks.
The statistics as at midnight Sunday 10 May:
Hayward
Seeka packed 7,629,492 trays Industry packed 24,399,260 trays [31.3%]
Seeka average size 32.46 Industry average size 32.73
Shipped 5,049,035 trays In-store 2,628,623 trays
On order for week 20 558,645 trays
On order for week 21 1,076,937 trays
Our crews packed 2.5M trays of Hayward in week 19 and on Friday had packed 33% of all Hayward in the Industry. 1.125M trays were shipped during the week, with 558k trays on order this week and a whopping 1.07M trays next week. These are big numbers and represent a lot of pallets and pallet movements to contend with. Teams are understandably satisfied with their efforts and results to date.
Hayward organic
Seeka packed 308,587 trays Industry packed 868,072 trays [29.4%]
Seeka average size 34.27 Industry average size 34.54
Shipped 158,075 trays In-store 158,565 trays
On order for week 20 32,604 trays
On order for week 21 35,003 trays
Mainpack clearances now.
G14
Seeka packed 166,063 trays Industry packed 1,342,175 [12.4%]
Seeka average size 36.19 Industry average size 35.89
Shipped 160,729 trays In-store 5,333 trays
On order for week 21 883 trays
Consolidating part pallets and looking for last orders and last trays to load. .
G3 [Sungold]
Seeka packed 3,845,109 trays Industry packed 26,399,503 [14.6%]
Seeka average size 30.38 Industry average size 30.48
Shipped 1,766,971 trays In store 1,984,423 trays
On order for week 20 179,201 trays
On order for week 21 224,553 trays
Nearly there. We are into the home straight with G3 just looking for the final few orchards to be scheduled. Seeka has committed to a local market class 2 retail program that effectively sees all class 2 sold on behalf of our growers. It’s a positive development utilising the integrated supply chain with Glassfields.
G3 Organic
Seeka packed 42,096 trays Industry packed 442,768 [9.5%]
Seeka average size 28.95 Industry average size 30.95
Shipped 20,604 trays In store 21,492 trays
On order for week 21 2,246 trays
Apologies for the strange in-store figure last week and thanks to those of you who contacted me!
Hort 16a
Seeka packed 232,441 trays Industry packed 2,803,570 trays [8.3%]
Seeka average size 31.01 Industry average size 31.31
Shipped 126,794 trays In store 105,646 trays
On order week 20 29,154 trays
On order week 21 25,251 trays
G9 [Charm]
Seeka packed 41,112 trays Industry packed 430,158 trays [9.6%]
Seeka average size 36.25 Industry average size 31.33
Shipped - trays In store 41,112 trays
On order week 20 23,798 trays
The Seeka Growers Council has invited Zespri to update it on the marketing plan for G9. This meeting is scheduled for 13 May so I will update up you in the next blog.
Other updates
Oakside Loadout re-commissioned
While not entirely completed, the container loadout docks and curtain-sider load-out has been re-commissioned and is in full use at Oakside. Small items need to be competed [things like roof sealing] but in order to provide a safer work environment at Oakside the has been reopened. This takes pressure off the main bin reception area at the site and separates inwards and outwards truck movements. All contractors and parties who helped us through this catastrophe have been publicly thanked by Seeka and its growers. It has taken a huge amount of work to rebuild the site and it is a remarkable testimony to those involved to have it up and running at close to full functionality such a short time after such a significant event.
And from the strange but true file
Seeka has been complaining this year about the performance of the singe lab service provider believing that growers and the Industry would be better served by two independent labs. This view is backed up by the Seeka Growers Council. Last week our supply team had an urgent instruction from Zespri to hold a large bundle of fruit and recall it after a very high residue was found on an orchard from one of our large growers. Our team understandably went into a spin working out exactly where all the fruit was when they were also trying to coordinate the safe load-out of more than 1M trays of fruit. You can understand our amazement to find that the residue test was taken at least a week after harvest, and followed a normal post-harvest Psa spray. It was only the few unpicked (and sprayed) fruit that were tested! Surprisingly it seems no one noticed the lack of fruit on the orchard. Thankfully the subsequent response was quick and all holds and restrictions were lifted. I suppose we have something to smile about but it was a bit of a heart stopper for those involved at the time.
Close
It’s been a big week in the operational side of our business. Big volumes have come in and gone out but about three more similar big weeks remain. Best we make them safe weeks.
Kind regards
Michael
Seeka Key
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