Spending big to meet post-harvest surge

EastPack chief executive Tony Hawken will step down after 31 years with the company.

Grower-owned kiwifruit post-harvest company EastPack plans to invest about $15 million in new packing and cool storage capacity to meet volume growth, says chairman Ray Sharp.

The expansion will include installing a new nine-lane grader and a new cool store for up to two million trays at its Washer Rd, Te Puke, facility in time for the 2015 season.

EastPack will also increase cool store capacity at Collins Lane, Te Puke, for an additional 400,000 trays and expand its Optic cool store to provide capacity for an extra 500,000 trays.

"As well as significant capital investment in high-quality plant and equipment, our expansions will provide employment opportunities for people within our communities, and increase career opportunities for some who are already part of the EastPack team," Mr Sharp said.

The investment is part of EastPack's positioning for greatly increased volumes expected in the industry next season.

While Psa has not completely disappeared from orchards, most industry observers are comfortable the problem is being well-managed.

The new Sungold (G3) variety is showing signs of being high yielding and the expanded new production will flow through in the next season's harvest.

"This will place considerable pressure on critical industry infrastructure, especially post-harvest capacity," he said, and EastPack was making a significant capital investment in quality equipment and infrastructure to meet that growth.

EastPack's initial 2015 crop estimates indicated its total volume would be between 29.5 million and 31.0 million trays, up from 24.6 million in 2014.

EastPack, which last year merged with another post-harvest operator, Satara, is New Zealand's biggest kiwifruit packhouse and cool store operator, with seven facilities in Te Puke, Edgecumbe, Opotiki, Katikati and Whangarei.

The new grader was expected to be installed by Christmas and the cool store would be ready by the time harvest season opened next year.

The post-harvest sector has always been competitive and became even more so during the downturn when post-harvest companies had to fight for their share of a Psa-diminished harvest.

In addition to EastPack's merger with Satara, last year saw Katikati-based rival Apata merge with Aerocool of Te Puke.

"It's always going to be competitive," said EastPack chief executive Tony Hawken, who will step down at the end of this year after 31 years with the company.

"We live in the post- harvest world in a very competitive environment. But I think it's good that the industry is competitive because it pushes innovation and new ideas."

Fruity forecast

Industry-wide, kiwifruit volume is expected to increase from 93 million trays in 2014 to about 140 million trays by 2018 as the new Sungold variety progresses to full production.