Mr Chrisp said the warm temperatures in January and February brought the crop on about 12 days quicker than expected and the factory was unable to cope.
“This resulted in a high level of bypass, which is always very disheartening for everyone concerned.
“No sooner had that flush come through than crop yields significantly declined through the latter part of February and into March,” he said.
“We don’t know the full reason and are looking into it further.
“Obviously, climatic conditions were a factor but the factory struggled to process the volumes it needed to on some days and one of our previously stable varieties had unexpectedly poor yields.”
By contrast, Mr Chrisp said the company had enjoyed an outstanding tomato season.
“We finished it on Sunday and it has been an excellent crop.
“We have harvested about 26,000 tonnes.
“Some of the later crop exceeded 130 tonnes a hectare, which is the highest tonnage per hectare result we’ve achieved in recent times.” he said.
“That has been slightly offset by a lower brix (solids) level in the crop, but the overall result is very pleasing for the company and our growers.”
Cedenco’s tomato harvest was all grown on the Poverty Bay Flats.
“We are about midway through our squash season, processing both frozen and powder, and our yields so far have been favourable,” Mr Chrisp said.
“Our squash season is going well.”
Cedenco completed acquisition of the ENZAfoods business last week.“The company has acquired the entire Hastings operation and the Food Ingredients business in Nelson.
“The apple harvest has been much larger and earlier than anticipated,” Mr Chrisp said.
“Both sites are in peak production, processing about 1400 bins of apples a day.”
