Seeka Reports Strong Start to Kiwifruit Harvest Despite Red Fruit Challenges

Seeka handles around 47.1 million trays of kiwifruit annually, of which 19 million trays come off their own orchards. The remainder of the fruit come from other orchards and is packed at one of their 11 packhouses based in the major kiwifruit growing regions around the country.

Franks says they have just about completed harvesting the red kiwifruit and he says the fruit size is a lot bigger, which is good, but fruit quality is a bit more indifferent.

"The red fruit poses more challenges for us because it is more like a berry rather than kiwifruit, and I think the industry is still getting its head around that," he says.

Franks says they are about a quarter of the way through the SunGold harvest and are also waiting or that green fruit - the Haywards - to come on. He says the weather has mostly been kind this season, apart from the cyclone, and regular rain has been helpful.

"Labour supply has generally been pretty good, although we have had some issues getting it to settle down across our 11 export packhouses. Because of this, there is some regional variability, and it hasn't been straight forward as we had hoped," he says.

Franks says like most companies in NZ, Seeka is facing inflationary pressure with such things as electricity.

"Generally, we have had a pretty good run over the last couple of years, and we are trying desperately to have another one," he says.