KEY POINTS:
Seeka Kiwifruit Industries is expecting a lower after- tax profit this year following a big increase in green kiwifruit losses.
Chief financial officer Michael Franks said yesterday the NZX-listed company was taking a number of steps to sort out the losses problem, which has blighted parts of the industry this year.
Te Puke-based Seeka - the country's biggest combined kiwifruit grower and post-harvest company - had unaudited after-tax profit for the half year to September of $5.7 million, compared with $3.9 million last year.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation was $12.1 million versus $10 million last year. Operating revenue of $80.5 million was more than $2 million ahead.
But Seeka projected flat operational earnings for the full year and a lower annual net profit. It said that this year the green variety of kiwifruit had recorded up to three times the normal pre-export fruit loss.
Seeka alone has had a 10 per cent lower fruit return.
The industry has been reviewing why the spoiling has occurred, with Zespri chief executive Tim Goodacre saying the two main suspects are wet harvest-time weather and the possibility of fruit taking too long to process.
Franks said Seeka believed a combination of factors, which meant fruit wasn't picked at "optimal maturity", had contributed to the company's green variety spoiling.
Some growers wanted picking delayed to ensure fruit was tastier and fetched a higher price. Weather problems and labour shortages were other factors, and early-season Japanese market packing requirements had slowed processing.
The industry was still trying to nail down exactly why the spoiling occurred but Franks said the lack of definitive results was not stopping the company taking action now.
It had applied to be allowed to use 200 migrant workers from Asia and was looking at the building of a major accommodation complex near its big packhouses.
And it was investing $4 million in gold variety processing equipment which would free up machines for processing green kiwifruit quicker.
