eNews Kiwifruit July 2023 Edition

John Lewitt
Head of Operations and Logistics

Shipping and fruit loss

We have shipped over 75% of our fruit across all fruit groups, with most of the remaining fruit expected to be shipped by early October. This is around six weeks earlier than last season because of the smaller crop volume in 2023. We are currently in a busy shipping period, with around 2,000 pallets loading out weekly. We’re loading out on approximately three charter vessels per week, with the balance loading out in containers.

Our fruit is performing well this season; we currently have lower fruit loss than the industry average across all fruit groups. We are currently repacking around 40% of SunGold fruit and 20% of Hayward fruit. The main defects we are repacking for are Physical Damage Rots in both SunGold and Hayward and Non-Pathogenic Fungal Growth (NPFG) in SunGold. Despite this, NPFG levels found in condition checks are half the level of last year, which is due to the efforts put in at harvest time to remove explosive softs, both on the orchard and in the packhouse.

Our export avocado season is due to start in August, and our engineering team are on track with converting our packing set-up on the Packhouse 3 packing line from kiwifruit to avocado.

As part of our preparations for the 2024 harvest season, we are installing a controlled humidity packing system which prevents condensation from forming on cooled fruit and allows fruit labels to be applied to fruit already in a coolstore. Once this installation has been completed, we will have full flexibility to pack both Bin Store and Controlled Atmosphere fruit on any of our four export packing lines in all weather conditions.

Debbie Robinson
Head of Supply

The Zespri grower report

For growers to receive the highest possible OGRs, Zespri works to maximise the full market demand of the highest-paying markets. While for some it’s easy to say, ‘’It doesn’t matter what I do on my orchard, someone else will supply pest-free fruit’’, if we aren’t maximising market returns (and therefore grower OGRs), it does matter!

In recent years, Zespri has struggled to meet the demand of some of our best-returning markets (i.e. China, Japan and Taiwan) due to pest finds at packing.

In a new initiative to provide growers with better information, the Zespri Quality Team has developed the following report, showing growers what pests were found on their orchards at the time of packing. The report also suggests what could be done to manage the problem going forward and the potential financial loss to the pool if full market demand is not met due to the pest find.

While the Trevelyan’s Technical and Grower Services teams already work closely with our most challenged growers, we see this as a positive step by Zespri to further support the industry around fruit quality, meeting customer expectations and maximising grower OGRs.

The following example is a draft at this stage, but once finalised, the report will be emailed directly to growers from the Zespri Quality team.

Pranoy Pal
Kiwifruit Technical Manager

Trevelyan’s winter Field Days

We organised a series of well-attended Field Days this winter. These included a Red19, Gold3 and Hayward Field Day in the Te Puke region and a soil recovery Discussion Group for our Gisborne growers. Here’s a summary of the topics discussed:

Red19

• Growing Red19 is unique compared to the other varieties.
• Cane spacing is critical. Red19 canes are better at being exposed to abundant sunlight, and if the spacing is correct, then carrying the correct cropload is not generally an issue.
• Red19 is very floral, and early thinning of buds and flowers is needed to manage crop load and fruit variability – aim for around 50-60 flowers/m2.
• Warm sites with good shelter from the wind are required.
• A strong Psa management programme is vital.
• Bud-break and flowering are up to three weeks ahead of Gold3. Therefore, vines require added protection from frosts, wind and pests (especially birds).
• Flowers should only have a maximum distance of six metres between males and females for successful pollination.
• For optimum pollination, Red19 orchards ideally need 10 hives/ha.
• Hydrogen cyanamide applied at 4% in 600-700L water effectively reduces side flowers and overall flower numbers, thereby saving on thinning costs. Failure to manage crop loads increases the risk of producing small fruit, undersize reject fruit and low Dry Matter fruit.
• Optimum timing for single applications of Benefit-Kiwi for fruit sizing is 4-6 weeks after mid-bloom.

Gold3

• Set a ‘moderate’ cropload prior to winter pruning and stick to it – perform frequent counts throughout the growing season and thin as required.
• Tie in extra canes as insurance, but be prepared to adjust numbers quickly if bud-break is good.
• Waterlogged orchards with compromised roots may flower and pollinate well, but when the stress really comes on these plants in mid-summer, vines will begin to tip over (i.e. look sick and die) and/or abort fruit. Hence, moderate your cropload and stick to your plan.
• Look after your soils by aerating (ground hogging and soil ripping) and increasing the organic matter.

Hayward

• Carry a moderate cropload– perform regular counts to stick to your target cropload because vines may not be prepared to ‘carry’ very high numbers due to stress events and shrunken root mass.
• Pollination is critical this season due to beekeepers struggling to maintain strong hives over the last two seasons. Contact your beekeeper to ensure quality hive supply this spring.
• Due to reduced winter chill, use the Trevelyan’s Hydrogen Cyanamide Budbreak Calculator to ensure that bud-breaker application dates are within the ideal range.
• Vine health should be the key focus – use all available options to increase soil organic matter: cover crops, compost, humates, biochar, etc.

Bex Astwood
Organic Category Manager

Organic update

We had an informative COKA meeting earlier this month, with Zespri’s Paul Jones, Jason Te Brake and Tracey Armstrong presenting. 

Tracey spoke about global organic sector dynamics and how the organic market continues to grow. Of interest: 

• The US organic food sector reached a value of $22 billion in 2022, with 15% of this being fresh produce. 
• In the EU, school lunches are required to be made of 25% organic produce.
• The French Government has allocated 60 billion euros to revive the organic sector. 

Looking at the global fruit bowl for organics, kiwifruit makes up 0.2%. In the USA, kiwifruit is the fasting growing fruit variety, with Canada and Germany also having further organic growth prospects. 

Zespri Organics is continuing to look for ways to maximise organic returns in 2023 and is focusing on physical availability, in-store visibility and driving up premiums. 

Other information from the COKA meeting included the following: 

• Feedback about good run rates in the market and, combined with high pricing, Zespri are optimistic about the price per tray. 
• HWOB is looking like it has a 12% price increase in the market, and GAOB is looking like it has a 6.8% increase. 

It was a great meeting; these updates show the importance of more growers getting involved in COKA. Let me know if you want to learn more about what we’re doing in that space. 

At Trevelyan’s, our fruit loss continues to look good.

• Our GAOB is currently 86% shipped, with just 0.13% fruit loss versus the industry’s 0.19%.
• Our HWOB is currently 65% shipped, with just 0.01% fruit loss versus the industry’s 0.09%. 

From first-hand experience, the fruit in the Canadian market is looking great, with high price points.

Sarah Lei
Head of Sustainability

Learning from the past to grow a better future

When we signed up for our Sustainability-linked Loan (SLL) earlier this year, we committed to reducing the carbon emissions we generate from fuel consumption.

It all looks so easy on paper, but then the real mahi starts. When we ask people to change their behaviour and to work out how they can drive their company cars less, things start to get a bit hard.

This led us to take a closer look at our historical sustainability progress, and ask ourselves what learning we could take from our efforts in reducing waste to landfill from 2010 to 2013.

Way back in the days when the grass was still green and the pond  was still wet and the clouds were still clean…” Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

We produced the following graph, which tells an interesting story…

In 2010, when we began our sustainability journey, waste to landfill (orange line) cost nearly the same as company car fuel (purple line). By 2022, waste-to-landfill costs had reduced more than three times, but company car fuel costs had increased more than eight times. So, what happened?

Over the last 13 years, we have implemented numerous initiatives to help reduce our waste to landfill which have saved a significant amount of money (compared with the red dotted line). These have required huge system changes across our site and in the heart of our operations. At every step, we have worked hard to educate our people and help them understand the impacts of their actions. Some of these initiatives include:

• Compacting and recycling more than 200 tonnes of cardboard a year.
• Onsite composting of more than 100 tonnes of leaves, dust and kitchen packaging
• Reuse of packaging collected during repack.

As our throughput grew, we worked to diversify our portfolio with orchard management services. Our fuel use kept growing, and it was harder to see how we could reduce it. Electric cars are one option, but is that the best idea, or can we work smarter?

So, what can we learn from our historical progress?

• Making meaningful change in sustainability is HARD.
• Just because it’s hard, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try; you have to start somewhere.
• When you start out with sustainability, you don’t always know what the journey will look like.
• Sustainable progress often produces additional benefits – cost savings, less traffic, and engaged staff.

As we step up our efforts to reduce our fuel use, we will look for different ways to do things, including how we interact with and support our growers. We won’t always get it right, but we hope you will stick with us on our journey towards a better future, and if you have any ideas, we’d love to hear them.

Colin Olesen
TGL Chair

Quality should be a one-way street

Quality was a word that pervaded much of your Directors’ July meeting; the starting point of the discussion was the quality of the fruit that leaves the orchard on its way to the packhouse. Trevelyan’s quality results were reviewed and compared to the rest of the industry, with residues and pests being the primary focus. Trevelyan’s quality control in these areas was right up there when comparing the results of tests done in-market before the fruit was put on supermarket shelves. That is something we can all be proud of.

There is a degree of nervousness around while we await a more precise assessment of the 2024 crop size to be packed and shipped; much work is being done industry-wide to prepare for an expected increase in crop volume.

The year-to-date delivery to market of our 2023 crop is on the good side of industry averages, and with an expected short selling season due to lower crop volume, fruit loss onshore and offshore should be much lower than the prior year.

The explosive charges agreed to by your Directors and recorded in the 2023 Packing Agreement were reviewed, the outcome of which will be communicated to all growers shortly. This charge affects growers who had a high incidence of explosive fruit, with growers who had an explosives rate under one fruit per bin on a pack run not incurring any such charge. If this charge had not been introduced, the overall packing rate for all growers would have been set higher.

And lastly, the Hail Trevelyan Pool self-insurance cover that was activated after the hail events earlier this year will be seen in our grower payouts in the next couple of months. There is a limit of $500k grower-wide self-cover set, and the total payout will be in the vicinity of $290k. This will be funded by the Hail Levy on all Trevelyan growers that did not formally opt out of the self-insurance cover.

Please be involved and attend, if possible, the important industry Annual General Meetings over the next few weeks.

Celebrating Matariki

For Matariki this July, the Trevelyan’s team celebrated with educational activities on te reo Māori and mātauranga Māori throughout the week and ended with a shared lunch and games of Poi Rākau on Thursday. It was a great time to connect and celebrate together as a business, check out some of the festivities below!