SEK - Seeka

[Iceman]

Starting a SEK thread after a bad profit downgrade during the week, at the end of a very challenging harvesting season with limited access to good overseas horticulture workers, soft and damaged fruit and extraordinary problems and additional costs with freight.

I'm however content holding this one long term as I believe the business is sound and very well managed and still growing fast. There will always be good years and bad in this industry.

[BlackPeter]

Agreed. Foodproduction will be New Zealands most significant industry to bring us through (and pull us out of) the coming economic crisis, and Seeka is one of the better companies in this field.

Holding as well.

[Touareg]

Unfortunately this is how it goes in the fruit industry,very up and down, it's not that often they get a good run for a few years on end.

[lorraina]

Pleasing seeing Masfen Securities onboard with 2,138,100 shares or 5.092%.

[Hectorplains]

Early season signs are promising for Gisborne growers.  Gisborne is not a major growing area; BOP produces 80% of the crop but the two regions tend to largely mirror each other for successful (or not) seasons.  I spoke with a couple of growers and the  biggest issue is getting sufficient labour.  From the fruit side all the initial indicators point to a good season.  El Nino poses an obvious risk. 

I've grabbed a few SEK over the last while.  They look well priced on a risk to reward ratio to me. 

[Hectorplains]

Good update today - outlook improved for 2024

Capacity for 50m+ trays
− Automation projects at 3 facilities
− Seasonal labour supply greatly improved
− Operational improvements, lower overhead

Outlook to 2024 positive
− Yields and volumes forecast to rebound
− Good winter chilling and bud break improved
− More kiwifruit orchards entering full production

Focus on maintaining operational excellence
− Operational excellence with a bigger expected crop

[The Kid]

Bumper crop and better prices forecast for kiwifruit growers
 https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/country/502962/bumper-crop-and-better-prices-forecast-for-kiwifruit-growers

[Hectorplains]

Bumper crop alright but now the trick is getting the labour for picking, packing etc.  Still as KW posted in the retail thread, "there are 25,000 more people on welfare benefits than this time last year."  Surely, that's got to equate to more available workers then, eh?

[Hectorplains]

Bumper crop alright but now the trick is getting the labour for picking, packing etc.  Still as KW posted in the retail thread, "there are 25,000 more people on welfare benefits than this time last year."  Surely, that's got to equate to more available workers then, eh?"

[Waltzing]

what is the hourly rate for picking... and how much automation is available in the field in NZ.

There is a PHD in hamilton who does this stuff but had trouble adapting to the requirements of human relations in management...

[Hectorplains]

what is the hourly rate for picking... and how much automation is available in the field in NZ.

There is a PHD in hamilton who does this stuff but had trouble adapting to the requirements of human relations in management...

Most orchards pay by the bin, rather than hourly.  Even an average picker can clear a bin an hour.  Bins pay varies but around mid $20s.

[KW]

Bumper crop alright but now the trick is getting the labour for picking, packing etc.  Still as KW posted in the retail thread, "there are 25,000 more people on welfare benefits than this time last year."  Surely, that's got to equate to more available workers then, eh?"

You're all good, Chippie took care of this before he departed.

https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/immigration-settings-updates
RSE cap
The Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme cap will increase by 500, to allow up to up to 19,500 workers to be employed for the 2023/24 season.

[BlackPeter]

SP trend looks like a Golden Cross to me (at least on my weekly chart). Fundamentals sound good as well - bumper crop and similar expressions being used. Maybe somebody needs to tell these analysts to lift the target price (up from the current $2.30) and buy recommendation (like from underperform to outperform).

No need to further wait with this update ... I've got all the shares I wanted to buy ;

[BlackPeter]

FY2023 results are out:
http://nzx-prod-s7fsd7f98s.s3-website-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/attachments/SEK/426972/413716.pdf

They actually look better than analyst expectations (i.e. loss at the lower end of the forecast), but yes, it was not a good year.

Quite pleasing on the other hand the outlook for 2024 - Kiwifruit expected to be back to normal (Sun-Gold) or even better (Hayward), and big expectations for their Australian branch.

Pleasing as well, that they used the bad years to improve their processes and advance their automation.
Sounds like they are ready for a bumper crop this year.

TA: Just looking at the trend - golden cross passed, and SP did break as well through the resistance at $2.71.
 
No doubt the momentum seekers currently backing up their trucks ... and (bar a further climatic catastrophy) blue skies ahead for the year ...

[BlackPeter]

Already the second profit upgrade this year and dividend not just reinstated, it will come early this FY. Things humming along nicely.
https://www.nzx.com/announcements/440102

Now, the only question is - what to do with all this nice money? Do we want to invest in another cool storage?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/kiwifruit-market-signals-needed-for-future-infrastructure-investment-in-sector-seeka-boss
(probably paywalled);