Seeka Kiwifruit Industries has packed a record number of trays in the just-completed 2015 kiwifruit harvest, handling more than 26.3 million class one export trays, compared to 20 million class one trays in 2014.  

Seeka’s own orchard operations featured well, with a crop increase this harvest season.

Own orchards
“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 two million trays to handle the additional harvest volumes predicted for 2015. It invested about $5 million in a new coolstore at Oakside to store about one million trays along with a second one million trays of storage constructed at the Pioneer site by the landlord through a commercial leasing arrangement.

Michael says the company is pleased with the performance to date and thanks all supplying growers, contractors and staff for their efforts, and again praises the efforts of the response teams, firefighters and contractors for their response to the Oakside fire.

Seeka will provide current year financial guidance when it updates stakeholders in October.