Michael Franks CEO at Seeka.The New Zealand harvest is expected in mid to late August, subject the maturity and the market, the fruit has benefited from a warm and wet autumn period and sizing has been good. There was some heavy rain and wind last week in the country but it is too early to tell if the crop will be affected by it, but at the moment fruit quality and size is looking good.
"We don't expect the very high prices which we saw last year and certainly not the spikes which we had in the market after Christmas last year," said Franks. "We expect a more even supply through to the market and a more disciplined approach by the marketers. We do expect prices to be good though, and we have good support and demand for our quality fruit from wholesaler and retailer customers in Australia and Japan."
Seeka's new Gem program is just getting underway. The company has exclusive marketing and growing rights for the variety in New Zealand. Gem is a new variety in New Zealand which matures a little bit later so it will hit a nice market window, the tree is shorter which makes it easier to pick and the fruit hangs inside so it is less likely to get blemished by the sun. It looks like a Hass avocado, but has a yellow indicator on it when it is ripe.
The first 7000 plants will be coming out of the nursery this year, to be followed up with an anticipated 10,000 next year.
For more information:
Michael Franks
Seeka Industries
Tel: +64 7573 0303
Email: mfranks@seeka.co.nz
www.seeka.co.nz