Kiwifruit's big players count cost of disease

Kiwifruit vines. Photo / Steven McNicholl

Six orchards supplying listed kiwifruit company Seeka Kiwifruit Industries are infected by a disease that has rocked the industry.

Seeka said as of yesterday morning 25 orchards across the industry had been infected by bacterial disease Pseudomonas syringae pv actinidiae (Psa) - all producing gold variety fruit.

By last night a total of 28 orchards had been confirmed with Psa.

"In Seeka's case, six orchards supplying Seeka have been confirmed as having Psa, all in the Te Puke region and totalling approximately 39 hectares," the company said.

If all the supply was lost from those orchards it would represent about 8 per cent of the gold kiwifruit handled by Seeka, or 2 per cent of the company's total kiwifruit supply.

Two of the six orchards were under Seeka long-term leases totalling 7.46ha.

"The symptoms on these particular orchards are considered light and action has been taken to remove infected plants," Seeka said.

According to its 2010 annual report Seeka grew more than 1100ha of kiwifruit in the Coromandel and Bay of Plenty, with orcharding operations producing about 10.3 million trays of class 1 fruit from this year's harvest.

Post-harvest operations handled about 23.7 million class 1 trays, about 23 per cent of New Zealand's production.

Seeka said it would provide its six- month report by November 29. Seeka shares closed up 5c yesterday at $2.20.

NZAX-listed Satara Co-operative Group has had Psa confirmed on one orchard.

Satara packed about 9 million trays of kiwifruit a year, with about 25 per cent coming from leased orchards and the rest from shareholders.

Chairman Hendrik Pieters said it was too early to understand the impact of Psa.

"It's speculation at this stage and I think it's a matter of determining the severity of the spread and the impact that that's going to have on the industry," Pieters said.

A proposed merger between Satara and EastPak to create a new fully grower-owned supply co-operative was on target for consideration by shareholders in December. Shares in Satara closed unchanged yesterday at $1.

Turners & Growers managing director Jeff Wesley said the NZX-listed company probably had 150ha of kiwifruit orchards, which were mostly in Kerikeri and were either owned or licensed, were clear of symptoms or had tested negative for Psa.

Turners & Growers also packed about 1.5 to 2 million trays a year of kiwifruit. Shares in Turners & Growers closed down 4c at $1.36.

THE NUMBERS

SEEKA
* 100ha leased in Coromandel and Bay of Plenty.
* Packs about 24 million trays a year.
* Six orchards infected.

SATARA
* Leases and manages 320ha.
* Shareholder growers, plus 20-25 per cent from leased orchards.
* One orchard infected.

TURNER & GROWERS
* 150ha of orchard, owned or licensed, mostly in Kerikeri.
* Packs about 1.5-2 million trays a year.
* No orchards infected.