6
News
FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 30, 2022
Fruit volumes sliced in harvest Richard Rennie richard.rennie@globalhq.co.nz TWO of the country’s most significant horticultural crops have been caught out with lower than expected harvests, leaving the industry and growers short of millions in anticipated income. The apple industry is entering the later stages of harvest with losses estimated at 10-12% and more than $100 million of fruit either rejected or still hanging on trees. And kiwifruit analysts are struggling to determine the cause of a 10% drop in the billion dollarplus SunGold kiwifruit crop. Pipfruit NZ chief executive Terry Meikle confirmed the 10-12% drop in the apple harvest from its pre-harvest estimate carried out in January. He says this was due to a combination of factors including heavy rainfall events in Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay mid-harvest, and from omicron establishing itself in NZ at the harvest outset. Its arrival in the three main Pacific islands that Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) staff are sourced from a few weeks later has also impacted upon RSE availability. Hopes were for RSE numbers to reach 16,000 staff this year, but is estimated to be about 20% short on that, with the Tongan eruption making securing staff more problematic. A lack of backpackers and international students on working holiday visas has also exacerbated the sector’s ability to ensure a timely harvest. Meikle said the next challenge
In the case of SunGold it was only two months ago we were anticipating 115 million trays in total, now it is 103 million so yes, it is a surprise. Michael Franks Seeka being faced was a logistics one with transport and shipping continuing to be complicated by a number of factors. This included China’s ongoing covid elimination strategy causing significant logjams on shipping routes and putting pressure on markets already scarce for container supply. Further north in Bay of Plenty, Seeka, the country’s largest grower and post-harvest processor, announced in an NZX update that the total NZ SunGold kiwifruit crop was expected to be 103.3 million trays, a drop of almost 10% on earlier forecast industry volumes, NZ wide. In announcing its financial summary for 2021-22, Zespri chief executive Dan Mathieson confirmed this season’s crop has lower volumes that initially forecast. He said challenges remaining in the current season also include the impact of the pandemic of global shipping networks. Seeka’s SunGold volume packed to date reflected the decline, with a total volume of 26 million trays.
LOWER: Seeka chief executive Michael Franks confirmed the lower than expected SunGold harvest has taken the sector by surprise this late in harvest.
While its current year’s volume is ahead of the 17.9m packed in 2021 to date, the season’s total is behind the current year estimate for Seeka by 8.2%. Seeka chief executive Michael Franks said it was not typical to have a drop over expected crop yield this late in the season. “In the case of SunGold it was only two months ago we were anticipating 115m trays in total, now it is 103m so yes, it is a surprise.” He said the industry had anticipated fruit size would
improve through the season. “We thought it was a good start to the season, we did have a wind event in Opotiki, but the rest of the season looked good too.” Meantime all eyes were on the Hayward (Green) kiwifruit harvest, which was only one third complete. Estimates for Hayward at this stage have the crop down 4.7% to 65.1m trays, with the risk there would be a further reduction in volumes. To date Seeka has packed 5.6m trays of Hayward as it hits the
main season Hayward harvest in coming days. Franks said it had been a monumental effort by industry to get fruit harvested this year, given the shortages of overseas workers and the tight local labour supply. “We will be happy to put the season behind us and look forward to next year,” he said. Seeka has advised it is too early to provide a current year earnings guidance but expects to do so once the Hayward harvest and packing was complete.
Golden glow on Zespri profit figures Richard Rennie richard.rennie@globalhq.co.nz ZESPRI has announced a record level of revenue after a tough season, topping $4.47 billion in earnings a lift on 12% on the previous year. The earnings include licence revenue and comprise $4.03b from all global fruit sales, from a record setting 201.5 million trays of fruit sold. The marketer’s net profit after tax was a record setting $361.5m, up from $277.1m the year before, with continuing demand for the SunGold licences buoying profit levels. Zespri returned $2.47b back to growers as payments. Zespri chairman Bruce Cameron says the results reflected the efforts by the industry to continue to operate safely throughout the challenges presented throughout the pandemic. “This was an extraordinary season where the industry
faced some considerable headwinds in market, throughout the supply chain and on orchard, yet collectively we found a way to tackle the challenges and to continue to succeed. “Most pleasingly, not only have we delivered strong returns for growers including our second-highest per hectare returns, we’ve strengthened our partnerships across our global supply chain, continued to make positive contributions to our communities, and made decisions as an industry to set ourselves up for sustained success,” Cameron said. The average return for Zespri Green per tray was $6.35 and for SunGold $11.51, with an average return per hectare of $176,026. Chief executive Dan Mathieson says Zespri’s continued investment in brand building and long-term supply chain partnerships have enabled the company to avoid
the worst of the global shipping crisis with greater use of charter ships. He said the offshore crop volumes grown under licence for Zespri also continue to perform well. The marketer now has 26.5m trays grown under contract offshore, contributing $410m to revenue streams. “The growth of our offshore production remains critically important, boosting our efforts to serve our consumers yearround, helping to hold our shelf space, make our marketing investment more efficient and to maintain commercial partnerships to allow us to launch our New Zealand sales season.” Mathieson acknowledged the current season continues to face challenges, with the ongoing impacts of global supply chains as a result of the pandemic’s aftermath, particularly on shipping networks.
GOLDEN: Zespri chief executive Dan Mathieson says SunGold licence income has led revenue income.
