Seeka

[Getty]

Can't compare Air BNB with accomodation for your staff from overseas that you desperately need, that will be living there for several months a year.

I think you can, as a readily available reference point for all to see.

Much of Air BNB does get swallowed up by people on 6 month working visas, and others overstaying that time.
Providers do use it to advertise their offering, in a free and open market.

The challenge to anyone including John Campbell, who thinks the RSE workers are getting a raw deal, is to price it up, put their money where their mouth is, and undercut the existing purpose built facilities.

If Seeka provide or contract out the same purpose built accommodation as shown On TV, and exists here in Hawkes Bay, then I will be sleeping easy.

Dont forget these places have to comply with local body regulations, which are the same for Kiwis. .

[bull....]

must be a serious issue

Kiwifruit quality concerns could become a $500 million problem

Zespri chairman Bruce Cameron said in an update to the industry that fruit loss and quality claims were well above historical averages, and he expected it to continue to be a problem in future.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/far...illion-problem

[Getty]

Director Fred Hutchings showing confidence by adding @ $40K @ $4.00 to his already sizeable holding.

[Biscuit]

must be a serious issue

Kiwifruit quality concerns could become a $500 million problem

Zespri chairman Bruce Cameron said in an update to the industry that fruit loss and quality claims were well above historical averages, and he expected it to continue to be a problem in future.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/far...illion-problem

Seems a bit odd they don't fully understand the cause of the drop in quality. Physical damage caused by....? Surely they will get on top of this quickly.

[bull....]

Seems a bit odd they don't fully understand the cause of the drop in quality. Physical damage caused by....? Surely they will get on top of this quickly.

in the herald today zespri guy says it might take 2 -3 seasons. guess they have to allow time as they dont know anything about it yet

[iceman]

in the herald today zespri guy says it might take 2 -3 seasons. guess they have to allow time as they dont know anything about it yet

No surprises really. Working or investing in fishing, farming, fruiting, meating or dairying is full of unforeseen risk. The Board will deal with it

[Biscuit]

No surprises really. Working or investing in fishing, farming, fruiting, meating or dairying is full of unforeseen risk. The Board will deal with it

More likely the guys on the ground are already dealing with it and management and the board will eventually take the credit.

[Jaa]

Thanks BP...I can guess at a few causes as well. speed of growth of the fruit, sunshine hours, timing of prior two items during the fruit maturation, temperature, the possibilities are pretty long, although I wouldn't have tied it back to chlorinated water that's for sure.

But does anyone know what the industry thinks is the cause ? And if it can be remedied ?

Zespri Chairman and CEO in the paper this morning reading the riot act to the industry and clearly stating the labour shortage led to the fruit quality issues.

Labour was a "huge" part of the quality problem, Mathieson said.

"It's leading to sub-optimal picking and a shortage of people to do the proper quality checks on the packing lines."

So lack of pickers and pack house graders basically.

Predictable shortcuts were made but very short sighted IMO. Better to have had a smaller crop but maintained quality (at higher prices) than to do long term damage to Zespri's reputation for consistent high quality. Been many complaints... "We're now seeing consumers in China talk about fruit quality on social media." Remember if its average quality kiwifruit you want plenty of other countries to buy from at much lower prices.

Solution is apparently license changes. I didn't understand from the article if this meant more Gold licenses or less. To me it seems the current state of the industry is unsustainable and the days of rapid volume growth are over and there should be less licenses and acres grown (bad news for Seeka).

No guarantee Kiwis will put up with indentured labour to bail out the industry either. Which is what the RSE scheme is showing signs of becoming and what importing foreign labour from SEA or South Asia would make a lot worse. Even if the NZ end operates humanely which it doesn't always even now, the labour suppliers in the source countries are anything but which would harm NZ's global reputation.

Do we want to become Qatar?

Kiwifruit reputation under threat

[epower]

Seems a bit odd they don't fully understand the cause of the drop in quality. Physical damage caused by....? Surely they will get on top of this quickly.

Caused by picking gangs ‘rain dropping’ so it just drops into their front pack and bruises from height. Largely labour shortage and paying people incentives by paying by bin instead of per hour. Labourers on the orchard (in their own best interest) just pick as fast as they can. Why should they care about quality when they are getting paid to fill that bin as fast as possible?

2nd is at the packhouses. Less staff to quality check fruit firstly whilst packing (to grade it correctly) and secondly when you quality inspect and repack the pallets not enough staff so dodgy stuff like only repacking a handful of boxes on the pallet you know the Zespri auditor is going to check and the remaining fruit on those pallets and unaudited orders simply gets eased through the system leading to poor quality in market overseas.

The kiwifruit industry is crumbling under its own success due to rapid GA fruit exports and not enough people to pick/pack/ship

[Biscuit]

Caused by picking gangs ‘rain dropping’ so it just drops into their front pack and bruises from height. Largely labour shortage and paying people incentives by paying by bin instead of per hour. Labourers on the orchard (in their own best interest) just pick as fast as they can. Why should they care about quality when they are getting paid to fill that bin as fast as possible?

2nd is at the packhouses. Less staff to quality check fruit firstly whilst packing (to grade it correctly) and secondly when you quality inspect and repack the pallets not enough staff so dodgy stuff like only repacking a handful of boxes on the pallet you know the Zespri auditor is going to check and the remaining fruit on those pallets and unaudited orders simply gets eased through the system leading to poor quality in market overseas.

The kiwifruit industry is crumbling under its own success due to rapid GA fruit exports and not enough people to pick/pack/ship

That sounds feasible and fixable. Hard job picking fruit - did a bit of that in South Australia in my 20s. You need a decent supply of motivated workers.