"We achieved excellent production efficiencies with good volumes of fruit and strong asset utilisation throughout the year. The benefits of our capital development programme, which have progressed over the last three years to improve packing and coolstore efficiencies, are starting to provide significant return on investment."
The company's land and buildings have been revalued, resulting in a $7.8m lift in asset values reflecting the increasing value of property in New Zealand and the confidence in the kiwifruit industry.
The 2016 season saw a bumper crop of kiwifruit and a challenge for the industry to pack and cool the entire crop.
EastPack packed 38.7 million trays of kiwifruit for its growers - a 5.7 million tray or 17 per cent increase on 2015.
This followed a 34 per cent increase in volumes packed from 2014 to 2015. EastPack also packed a further 851,000 trays for other post harvest operators whose growers utilised EastPack's near-infrared capability grading technology and additional packing capacity.
Meanwhile, Hayward volumes in 2016 were another record with the average orchard yield for EastPack growers in excess of 12,000 trays per hectare.
This compares to 2010 pre Psa when average industry yield for Hayward was approximately 7500 trays per hectare.
EastPack chief executive Hamish Simson said one of the most pleasing things about the 2016 season is that despite record volumes, EastPack growers generally had the ability to pick and pack their fruit at the best time.
"Our investment in near infra-red technology at Washer Rd proved to be a good decision and the capability to save Gold3 fruit that otherwise would have been dumped added significant value to a number of our grower lines.
"The strategies we put in place in 2016 to handle the increasing volumes of kiwifruit worked well.
"In 2017, with the addition of the new 14 lane grader at Washer Rd, we have configured our packing operations to support more than 40 million trays."