After a wet end to last week, we are back into fine weather and should be able to finish harvest before the next anticipated rain event next week. Getting this spell of fine weather is appreciated. It is getting colder and understandably there is a push to get to the end while at the same time transacting a safe, orderly and professional harvest that does not compromise fruit quality.
The big issue over Queens Birthday weekend was the revelation that Zespri believes it cannot economically sell all the large size Hayward kiwifruit. Over the long weekend Zespri sought to agree the commercial terms for withdrawing a volume of fruit – and in Seeka’s case this is 700,000 trays of size 18, 22, 25 and size 27 Hayward fruit. In total the volume of fruit to be removed is 3m trays in this tranche with the potential for more to be removed later.
Seeka asked for more time to be able to consult with the Seeka Growers Council given the importance of this issue to Hayward growers, some changes were negotiated as a result. These include being able to withdraw the fruit from ungraded fruit inventory [bin store and controlled atmosphere storage] and from packed inventory in addition to across the grader. The Seeka Growers Council met on Monday and as part of its normal monthly meeting agreed the commercial terms to be paid to Seeka in each of the circumstances.
Seeka had proposed crop managed fruit should able to be purchased at a fixed price for sale into Australian retail. Seeka has demand for these sizes at retail and this would have provided positive return to the pool. However this was rejected as other suppliers seemingly didn’t want Seeka to gain a commercial advantage from this situation.
Seeka asked Zespri to review the allocation methodology, wanting Zespri to consider allocating the relative share of crop management based on “share of crop to go” rather than “share of total crop estimate” as Seeka is relatively well advanced in its harvest. This was not supported by other suppliers so not implemented.
Seeka is taking all efforts to ensure we focus on crop managing poorer lines of fruit, lower dry matter lines, compromised lines or lines that may have been in store for some time waiting for Zespri orders.
Of course all of it is a poor surrogate to selling the fruit, and it begs the question again about the role a proper functioning collaborative marketing system could play in adding value to all growers.
To the numbers [as at midnight 12 June ]
Hayward Conventional
| Seeka packed trays | 18,054,416 | Industry packed trays | 69,701,605 [25.9%] |
| Seeka avge size | 32.36 | Industry avge size | 32.45 |
| Seeka loaded trays | 8,407,425 | Instore trays | 9,646,991 |
| On order | 1,378,887 |
Hayward Organic
| Seeka packed trays | 790,004 | Industry packed trays | 3,100,978 [25.5%] |
| Seeka avge size | 34.39 | Industry avge size | 35.02 |
| Seeka loaded trays | 271,552 | Instore trays | 518,452 |
| On order | 133,574 |
Zespri SunGold G3 Conventional
| Seeka packed trays | 7,423,925 | Industry packed trays | 47,239,552 [15.7%] |
| Seeka avge size | 29.04 | Industry avge size | 29.84 |
| Seeka loaded trays | 5,107,688 | Instore trays | 2,406,237 |
| On order | 484,771 |
Zespri SunGold G3 Organic
| Seeka packed trays | 116,310 | Industry packed trays | 750,270 [15.5%] |
| Seeka avge size | 30.63 | Industry avge size | 29.73 |
| Seeka loaded trays | 74,722 | Instore trays | 41,588 |
| On order | 8,360 |
Zespri Sweetgreen G14
| Seeka packed trays | 178,725 | Industry packed trays | 1,545,117 [11.6%] |
| Seeka avge size | 36.05 | Industry avge size | 36.21 |
| Seeka loaded trays | 155,818 | Instore trays | 22,907 |
| On order | 22,621 |
Our tribute to Dave Waters
I am sad to report the passing of Dave Waters who worked seasonally at the Main Road Katikati Packhouse. Our industry and our company relies on dedicated people like Dave who come and work for us day in day out, season by season and we are very sad to lose him. Our condolences go to Dave’s family, friends and work colleagues.
Thank you
For the great lines of fruit that our teams have been handling recently. They have been much appreciated by our teams pushing to complete the harvest.
Regards
Michael
Seeka Key
Contacts