18 June 2015
Seeka update [NZX:SEK]
Seeka reports record crop volumes handled for 2014-15 harvest
Seeka Kiwifruit Industries has packed a record number of trays in the just-completed 2015 kiwifruit harvest, handling
more than 26.3 million class 1 export trays, compared to 20.0 million class 1 trays in 2014. The total volume of all
classes of kiwifruit is expected to exceed 27.4 million trays this year. This compares to the 24.944m forecast to
shareholders at ASM held on 28 April 2015.
Both Hayward [Green] and Gold class 1 volumes are up. Total Hayward packed or in store for 2015 is 21.8 million trays
compared to 18.1 million in the previous year. Gold volumes in 2015 totalled 4.3 million trays and compare against 1.7
million in the previous year. Seeka also packed approximately 200,000 trays of the Zespri G14 SweetGreen.
Michael Franks, Seeka Chief Executive advised that the volumes are likely to be positive to earnings in the current year
but cautioned that there is still a lot of fruit in storage and still to be sold. Zespri has already released lower
forecast per tray returns reflective of the higher crop volume to be marketed this season.
Mr Franks advised that this year harvest was a very challenging season. Seeka did well to recover from a devastating
fire at its mega post-harvest site – Oakside. This site handled over 9 million trays in 2015. Adding to this pressure,
the Industry had to contend with inclement weather patterns and loadout inefficiencies arising from the new market
supply system.
Despite these challenges packing was completed on June 12 – only 3 days later than 2014.
Green yields were exceptionally good and fruit quality excellent. Supplying growers took particular care to provide a
clean crop and this aided smooth operations in our packing sheds. All parts of the Seeka supply chain, from orchard to
coolstore performed well.
The Hayward crop which has been the backbone of the Industry through PSA was well up on expectations. The average
orchard yield across the Seeka catchment is 11,700 trays per hectare [42.12 tonnes] representing an increase of 26% over
last year’s average yield of 9,300 trays [33.48 tonnes]. Similarly the Hayward organic yield was up 29% at 7,852 trays
[28.267 tonnes] per hectare.
Seeka’s own orchard operations featured well in the increase and in particular the long term leases that are now
progressively coming back into full production having had significant investment in their redevelopment. In total the
long term leases yielded 928,000 trays in 2015, well up on the 441,000 trays produced in 2014.
Seeka increased cool storage capacity by 2.0 million trays to handle the additional harvest volumes predicted for 2015.
It invested approximately $5 million in a new coolstore at Oakside to store approximately 1 million trays along with a
second 1 million trays of storage constructed at the Pioneer site by the landlord through a commercial leasing
arrangement.
Michael Franks advised that the Company is pleased with the performance to date and thanked all supplying growers,
contractors and staff for their efforts, and again praised the efforts of the response teams, fire fighters and
contractors for their response to the Oakside fire.
Seeka will provide current year financial guidance when it updates stakeholders in October.
ends