Welcome to you all to this analyst briefing call on the Seeka audited financial results for the year ended the 31st of December 2022. It's my pleasure to welcome you all and run you through the results for last year. The things which I will run you through is the last year in review, a commentary around the financials, discussion about the capital management for the company, an overview of the operating segments and how they performed, a brief description of the outlook. Then I'll take any questions or answer any questions that might have come online. A little bit of material to cover this year in looking backwards from the year.
It's my welcome to each of you, and thanks for taking interest in being online today this briefing. Seemingly, 2022 delivered every challenge to Seeka and its growers. Just when we thought there couldn't be any more, of course, there's been weather events in early 2023 that's devastated the Hawke's Bay and Gisborne regions. Our thoughts and support goes out to all those growers in those regions who have suffered loss or injury or loss of life. From our perspective, fortunately, all of our people and all of our sites are safe. All of them are operating. In fact, we're operating pretty quickly again in Gisborne, picking citrus.
All of our own orchards actually got through the storms reasonably impact. However, there have been some orchards affected in Gisborne, and particularly in the Hawke's Bay. We expect a total loss of volume in that area to be around 600,000 trays from one large grower. We are supporting that grower and working with them to see how we can help them further. You know, while it was challenging, 2022, we did get the harvests completed. People have forgotten how tough it was and how tight it was with the uncertainties of labor, with the uncertainties of the COVID pandemic, all the issues around shipping. You know, there was some uncertainty early in the year that we'd actually get the job done.
We can take some heart that we actually did. Although there's many things to fix, there's many things to improve on, and a lot of momentum in the company to do a better job. All of the operating segments at Seeka are EBITDA positive, and we have as a company returned to profit, albeit lower than what we would have anticipated or aspired to achieve. We have got operational improvements underway and capacities plans in place. We actually have those plans in place for the next five years. We understand what our plans are and around our core business and what we intend to do. We have got our regional presence now strengthened. We are operating in all of the major kiwi fruit growing regions of New Zealand.
Our business is far beyond kiwi fruit, but it is the foundation to our business. It is our core business. Importantly, we are covered throughout all the regions. We have added to the book of Potiki, Orangewood, and NZ Fruits in Gisborne. It's now called Seeka Gisborne 'cause many of our own staff don't know where NZ Fruits are. Businesses are integrated. They're in place and operating. We have 11 packhouses across New Zealand, employing, as a total company, around 800 people, and around 4,500 seasoned employees. A reasonable employer of people in New Zealand. We have higher revenue in the business, around NZD 348 million. Our EBITDA of NZD 46.1 million is below that which we aspire to achieve, but is still there.
NZD 7.6 million net profit before tax, NZD 6.5 million after tax, NZD 0.16 EPS. We have total assets now just under NZD 550 million. Industry-wide phenomena in 2022 was lower kiwi fruit yields, lower than we anticipated, much lower than what we would have hoped to achieve. We actually had poorer fruit quality. It was a difficult growing season, difficult harvesting season. People harvested the fruit under pressure and perhaps damaged it in that harvest process. We didn't pick up some of that damage as we handled it. We had severe labor shortages. At one stage, 1,100 people were short. While we might employ 4,500, 1,100 people short wasn't spread evenly over the regions or the packhouses. They sort of hit packhouse after packhouse or picking crew after picking crew.
We had to scramble. We had the increased cost with COVID-19. In particular, the protocols that we had to achieve to actually get market access, particularly for China. You know, the orchard returns were down. We had lower yields, and we had lower returns from the market. We had some operational challenges at OPAC, for which there is actually an insurance claim in process at the moment. We have, however, achieved tangible process with our sustainability drive. We have got three years of independently verified carbon footprint calculations done, verified by Toitū . Our sustainability committee of the board has worked with management to establish reduction targets and our initiatives to get the our impact on the environment down.
Our sustainability report, the first one for the company, has been published out to our stakeholders and shareholders. Importantly, we actually have reset the business for a more successful 2023. Of course, we've got the issues of the frost in the growing season last year. That won't happen every year. It just happened last year. Hasn't happened for a long time. We've got new packhouse automation and labor availability. Our RSE numbers have nearly doubled. We've got 1,500 RSEs approved to come into New Zealand this current year, more than double last. We've actually had very good sign-ups for early season interests across all of our packhouses from New Zealanders, we're feeling more confident about labor. We've got automation projects in place at three facilities.
The KKP machine, which was due to be opened early last year and opened late, is now fully operational and running. We've got a big upgrade that's happened at Oakside machine number three with a pre-sizer and camera grader. That machine removes 22 people a shift. We've done a big job in Gisborne with a carton handling system and stacking system. That machine will reduce 20 people a shift. Going back to KKP, we probably removed 30-40 jobs, or 30-40 seasonal roles per shift out of that machine. Actually decreasing the number of people that we require in our post-harvest engine room, noting that we run 22 hours a day, six days a week or seven days a week as we run. The increase in RSEs is welcome.
They come at a cost, of course. You know, including issues around accommodation. We've got accommodation facilities being built up in the Katikati region, which would handle, I think 140 people to go into that facility. That will be welcome when we've got it running. Our intention is maybe perhaps not to be the residual owner of that facility once we've built it, but we'll get to that when we get to it. We've done a lot of reviews in the company around our operational processes, our inventory management, our structuring of the business, our organization to ensure that we do a better job.
We've had a large focus in the company around cost management as we head into 2023 to try and buffer us in, against any further headwinds that we might, actually, encounter as we go. 'Cause we're a produce business. It doesn't run, like it might run on a spreadsheet. It runs, as nature might dictate for us from time to time. So actually, we've built ourselves a heavily, buffer there along the way in terms of our cost containment compared to where we might have budgeted to be, and perhaps, on the right side of the ledger by some four and a half million NZD at the moment.
That will just give us a buffer in case things don't proceed as we hope that they would in the current year, including events like Gabrielle taking out some volume out of the Hawke's Bay. In terms of the financials and moving to the financials, you know, revenue at $348.4 million is up 13% on FY 2021. We're happy with that increase. It reflects a bigger business spread across more regions. Our EBITDA at $46.1 million is down 19% on FY 2021. However, FY 2021 included a $7.6 million settlement from the Crown, from the PSA claim, the group action that was initiated. If I was to remove that from the 2021 numbers, our EBITDA is down by 6.3%.
Still not where we would like that EBITDA to be. Impacted by volume, impacted by costs, we've moved as a company to counter that in the current year. Setting ourselves really for a 2024 year where we expect volumes, yields, and costs to return to more normalized levels. Well, that's what we aspire or hope it will happen. Our profit before tax at NZD 7.6 million, likewise affected by the NZD 7.6 million the year before. Our profit after tax at NZD 6.5 million is in the range that we actually said to the market last year when we gave guidance. I was waiting for someone else to push the next page and realize it had to be me.
In terms of the trends of financial performance there in the analyst briefing pack that were distributed to you, revenue has steadily increased over the years. EBITDA has sort of increased, but not at the same rate as our revenue. That's something management is focusing on probably between 2024 before we get to a more normalized number, anticipating more normalized volumes through the business. For a big part of our business, we are putting fruit through an infrastructure and toll processing for it. If the numbers are down, then we're not toll processing the same volume of fruit. Comprehensive income, that's including the income from our revaluations of property plant. NZD 19.2 million, you can see that's steadily increasing.
NPAT at NZD 6.5 million, really below where we would like it to be. Noting that there was a one-off gain in 2021 from the settlement of the kiwi fruit claim. The year before that, there was a NZD 5.6 million tax benefit. In terms of trends in operating segment. I feel like I've missed something out in my pack, it'll turn up, no doubt. Trends in operating segment performance. Orcharding EBITDA at NZD 4.6 million. You'll hear about that in a minute. Really the effect of lower yields and lower market returns, actually very disappointing returns, particularly for the Hayward variety from Zespri. Our SeekaFresh retail services at NZD 800,000 really suffered through lockdowns, lower kiwi fruit volumes last year and lower avocado volumes, it's still positive.
Our post-harvest EBITDA at NZD 59 million, actually upper about where it was the year before. We aspire for that number to be much greater, and will be when the volumes come back to a more normalized level where we don't have these catastrophes running through the book. Australian EBITDA at AUD one million is still positive. In terms of capital management, there'll be some commentary, and there's already been some questions about this. There's two pages on capital management. Some of the questions that you might have for me will come in the next slide. There's an NZD 81.8 million increase in capital employed in FY 2022, of which NZD 48 million was an increase in property, plant, and equipment.
Some of that's because we purchased and integrated, Seeka Gisborne or NZ Fruits into the business. We put KKP into the book, we've actually also completed the new 650,000 tray TransCool cool store across the road from here at 360. They're now all operational. NZD 5.9 million in leased assets, really reflecting the land and buildings, the acquired land and buildings into the book. NZD two million increase in business investments. NZD 1.4 million of that is with Māori trust into orcharding and orchard services enterprises. Of the NZD 1.4 million, NZD 400,000 was a 50% purchase for Tīkaha Orchard Services, a little business up in Tīkaha, which is trading very profitably at the moment. We're happy about.
There is a NZD 4.1 million increase in tangibles and other, which includes three and a half million dollars of goodwill from the acquisition of Seeka Gisborne or NZ Fruits. At the end of December, we had NZD 147.4 million in bank debt. We anticipated that we had a lower profit result coming. Proactively Seeka approached its banking syndicate well ahead of the end of last year to tell them that it was likely that we had some chance that we might not maintain our covenants. We went and renegotiated the covenants, particularly in relation to our leverage ratio and interest cover ratio. Banks were happy to support the company, where we proactively did it.
Actually, they were scheduled to decrease over time, the December 22 number was a decrease from where it was previously. You know, the banks have worked positively with the company, and we have maintained compliance of our covenants as a result of that negotiation. Next covenant checkpoint is just, is June 30, 2023. We will continue to work with our banks and have their support, I believe, as we positively move forward. NZD 147 million net backed includes NZD 46.7 million increase on the year before. NZD 13 million of that was cash with the purchase of NZ Fruits. The NZD 11.3 million was the automation projects at KKP and NZ Fruits, and NZD 4.7 million of it was completing the TransCool job.
The TransCool job was more than $12 million. See if questions come in, which we'll handle in a minute. We have a syndicated banking facilities led by Westpac, thank you. In addition, with ASB, BNZ, and Rabobank. We have a $210 million debt line. Debt repayments have slowed from 2022's drop in profit. I've already discussed the covenant relief that we sought and obtained. We have at the end of December 2022, $6.3 million of assets held for sale, AUD 3.1 million settled on February 2023 for some surplus water that we sold. It was 750 megalitres of water that is beyond what we actually required over there in Australia.
What we require in a normal dry year, not just because we're in a wet year. So we took the prudent decision to sell or liquidate that water, liquidate the water, and turn it into cash. Company's been very careful with its balance sheet management, its debt management. We prudently suspended the dividend to retain the cash to make sure that we maximize our cash position and position with the bank, made sure that we're carefully set. We've been reviewing our assets and looking at assets that may not be required for core operations and challenging ourselves to do that. To sell assets that aren't actually required for core business.
Assets that we might have acquired with acquisitions of orchards or things like that we're actually just quietly working through and sensibly selling. We probably should have done that anyway. We will continue to work with our board to do the asset review, and that may include selling and leasing back assets in the future to, in a sense, to recycle cash, reduce debt. Oh, I've gone too far. Outside of that, total equity, NZD 270 million in the business. In terms of earnings per share, NZD 0.16, not sufficient prudently for the company to make a distribution. Board will need to consider that when we get to the six months. Company has limited its capital expenditure program in the current year to within depreciation.
We're not spending capital in excess of depreciation in the current year at the moment. We'll also look at where we're at at the six months and decide about what happens next in terms of our capital program and debt reduction. We haven't. Any dividend that we paid this year related to the previous year, final for 2022. Our net tangible assets is NZD 5.97, up 5% and well ahead of the current share price, I would note. In terms of operation segments. In terms of orchard operations, orchard revenue at NZD 80.5 million, up 4% on the year before. Revenue growth really because we had a lot more kiwi fruit orchards in the book that we were stewarding either through lease arrangements or long-term lease arrangements.
EBITDA at NZD 4.6 million is down from the NZD 5.2 million in the previous year, which reflects a reduction in yields. You see the yields down the right-hand side. Hayward yields reduced from 12,300 trays per hectare. That's 3.6 kilo tray to 9,650, and looks to be about the same in the current year. Sungold yields reduced from 14,370 trays a hectare to 12,000. Some of that was affected because of a wind event in Ōpōtiki that happened late in the growing season. Generally right across the board, yields are down from where we had expected them to be. The NZD 4.6 million EBITDA also reflects lower returns from Zespri.
You know, the Hayward return down really lackluster or below lackluster, really. The average of $55,000 a hectare is at or below the cost to grow for many growers in the book, not just Zespri, right across the industry. There's a lot of reflection and effort going on in the industry and focus to improve that number. We're exposed because of our increased presence in Ōpōtiki to that wind event. Two million trays down below we expected it to be. Pretty much, looking into that book and looking into that part of our business, really got a very good management team in place. It's well organized. Last year, to get ourselves through the job, we deployed people who had been scheduled to go into the orchards.
We actually redeployed them into the packhouse, so we could actually continue to run our packing operations and get, actually get the fruit through. It means that the jobs that they would have been doing in the orchards, they weren't doing, and there was always a margin for every job you do. Because they were redeployed out of the orchards from picking and put into the packhouse, so we could actually maintain service, we made money in the packhouse that we're gonna make anyway, but we actually didn't make it, in the orchards. You can contemplate from that, summary that in the current year, where we are anticipating or do have, a freer labor supply, albeit at a cost, that we expect a more normalized operation in our post-harve...
Sorry, in our orchard operations and hopefully a return to better margins. In terms of our post-harvest operations, this is where we pick. The orchards, across all of the, all of our growers, our own orcharding operations, and our contracted growers. This is where we organize the scheduling of the harvest, delivery of the fruit to our packhouses. We pack it. We grade it. We wrap cardboard around it. We put it to sleep in a cool store, and we ship it out to the markets. This part of our business is doing more than kiwi fruit. We're also contract packing citrus for third parties and for ourself. We're packing avocados for ourself and for third parties, and we're also contract packing persimmons.
Those other varieties, in addition to packing kiwi fruit, those other varieties actually are contributing quite nicely to the business, to be honest. Post-harvest revenue of NZD 233.8 million, up 19%. It's really a volume growth, but still those volumes are well down on what we expected. We probably had capacity in the engine to do another 10 million trays. We actually packed 42 million trays. We probably could have handled in excess of 52 million trays in that infrastructure. That was problematic. kiwi fruit yields are significantly down on what we expected across the industry, and we lost two million trays with the wind event, over in Ōpōtiki. EBITDA at NZD 59 million. Lower throughputs have impacted our margins really because of lack of labor.
We had higher labor costs, and we paid a lot more to get those people into the shed. While the minimum wage might have been NZD 22.75, we actually paid NZD 24 minimum for all people in the company, and so to attract 'cause of labor shortage. We're actually, at this stage, holding at that number for 2023 'cause we think that's a fair pay and well in excess of the minimum wage. We packed avocados as I talked about. Look, our capacity is set for 2023, particularly here in the Te Puke region. We've probably got 600,000 trays a week of additional capacity, so we can get to that crop faster. We've got the automation over in Gisborne. We've got the new cool store here at TransCool.
We've got some upgrades at Hamurana up in Northland. Actually the company is well set for harvest. We'll be harvesting fruit on Friday. Red kiwi fruit, I'm told. We're picking it on Friday and packing it somewhere in the weekend. In addition, we've already been packing kiwi fruit. We've nearly completed that kiwi fruit operation. Citrus in Northland, and citrus in Gisborne has continued throughout. In terms of our SeekaFresh Retail and Services operations. This is our Auckland business, where we're running. This is really handling all the fruit that we don't supply through to Zespri. In addition to our export programs. We're exporting kiwi fruit to Australia, avocados into Asia and Australia, kiwi fruit to Australia, and importing a whole range of produce, including pineapple, papaya, and bananas.
Business has been through a rocky road with all the lockdowns in Auckland, with a lot of impact on demand or very little demand. Business has actually done a reasonably good job. Revenue down at $19.1 million really reflects a reduction in the avocado volumes and prices, and a reduction in kiwi fruit volumes. EBITDA at $800,000 was still positive. I'd say to you that this business has started this year, 2023, extremely well and hit its targeted numbers for each of the last nine weeks. A nice focus going on there, and we are focused on that business in particular. Looking at ways to improve its profitability. In terms of our Australian business, likewise affected over there.
We're an integrated grower, packer, and supplying retail a whole range of Australian grown produce including kiwi fruit. Our revenue of $14 million is in line with the year before. $1 million EBITDA was down $600,000, really as we impacted the cost of inflation and COVID-19 costs in that part of our business. We've got 63 hectares of kiwi fruit coming into production next year. We've got new variety pears in Australia. We've got new Nashis and Piqa coming into the book. We also have some large jujube developments underway and programmed for the current year, which is a variety we're very excited about. That business is actually poised to actually turn in the current year. I've actually just been off the phone on a briefing this morning with our Australian general manager.
I'm reasonably satisfied with how 2023 has started in that part of our business. In terms of the outlook, if I push to the outlook, supply chain operations have been reviewed from orchard to load-out, and everything is now geared around achieving excellence in fruit handling in the current year. We've moved on. We understand that we've had a few headwinds. In anticipation of any other problems happening in this year, we've taken a cost reduction program to the business, and we're around four and a half million dollars saved so far, with more actually to be saved as we go through. We're reasonably. Really, that just provides us a buffer against anything that might go against us that we weren't anticipating. Yields come out lower or not. We've limited our capital expenditure to below depreciation.
Some of those programs are already committed, and so, you know, we've had actually taken a reasonably aggressive approach to our expenditure, and the board will review that again in June. We have prudently stopped the dividend, as is sensible. Likewise, the board will review that when it gets to see more financial information once we get past the harvest. We've got an improved labor supply. Large increase in RSE workers from the Pacific, they've programmed to come in, and we've got Tongan workers that have come back in from Malaysia. That's important. Those people had been coming to New Zealand for more than 10 years prior to the impact of COVID. And they were experienced people in the post-harvest middle management part of our business in a seasonal sense. They've been with us for a long time.
They're very skilled, and they're smart, and they have risen up through the ranks into sort of what we'd call key operational roles. When we lost them with COVID, we lost more than just the people because we lost their experience. We're thrilled that those people are back and back into the post-harvest engine. That gives us a lot more confidence. We've got our automation projects completed at KKP Oakside, and NZ Fruits is now running. I imagine something like 70 roles per shift has been removed out of our seasonal labor demand as a result of that. It also will have improved throughputs through those pack houses with the upgrade at KKP.
As I stand here in front of the analysts, I'd say to you that our capacity and systems are well set, and we've been through the wringer really getting ourselves operationally set for the new year. It's more than just running the gauntlet. Finally, if I make some comments about Cyclone Gabrielle. Well, no significant asset damage to ourselves. Mainly, most of the Bay of Plenty was actually spared the damage. In fact, most of our growing regions, sort of north of the Bay of Plenty, have got away with it. The Hawke's Bay was hit, and one of our growers has suffered a devastating impact and we are supporting those people and, you know, they're part of our community, so it's important.
We have had some impact over in Gisborne, and it's still raining in Gisborne today. I've been talking to those growers. They hope to get away with it, and we'll do what we can do to help those people. Pleasingly, we've got that pack house running. It's operating. It's ready to go. It's got automation. We're gonna run it 24 hours a day. It's never happened before at that site. That's sensible. We have limited our capital expenditure in the current year so that, so to buffer ourselves, and reduce debt rather than increase debt in how we are running. We'll review that when we get to the six months. We've got an asset review. We're continually reviewing our assets.
It's not a new initiative, but we've been prudently working through our asset holdings to see what is it that we've got, what is it that we have to have, what is it that we can perhaps sell or sell and lease back and recycle capital if that's what our board and company thinks is sensible. I know that I've got at least one question. It looks like I've got two. This is question time. If you'd like to ask any questions online, then I'd welcome you to, Nicola's gonna tell me what the questions are in a moment. Alternatively, on your screen is our contact details.
You're most welcome to ring us, not immediately, 'cause I'm still standing in front of you, but once we get past this presentation, you're most welcome to contact us directly. Nicola, you've got some questions.
First question from Derek at Trust Horizon. He'd like some more commentary around the Australia business, what the growth strategy is, and what strategic advantage are we looking for?
Our Australian business is the business that takes us out of our geography and into a different market. That business has around 100 hectares of kiwi fruit in production, which we have orchards that we lease from a third party owner. We have 73 hectares of orchards in development, predominantly and primarily Hayward. To increase that business over there, 'cause there is big demand for kiwi fruit in Australia. The way that we run that business is quite efficient. We do export a little bit, but really just for capacity management in Australia. We've got large holdings of Nashi Pears, Shinseiki, Nijisseiki, and Hosuis, around 200 hectares. They are all for domestic supply. We've got 95% market share in that category.
We've probably got 75% market share of kiwi fruit. We also grow plums, jujubes. I'm looking left, and I think and European pears. I knew there was a gap. The whole range of European pears, Packham's, Williams, Bosc, Lanja, Ricó , we got them all. That business really completes our supply chain, you know, as a produce company, orchard to market. We sell our major retailers in Australia, avocados from New Zealand, kiwi fruit from New Zealand, kiwiberry from New Zealand, and we also sell domestic fruit in Australia that we grow there. We've got branded produce on the shelf every day of the year. We also this year are importing pears, our own pears from Australia to put back into the supply chain through to key retail customers in New Zealand.
Truly it provides the company a complete value chain. We're integrated. We grow. We also supply to retail. Business, you know, is a little bit subject to the weather over there. It's a difficult growing region. Team's done a great job. You know, our growth strategy in Australia really centers around four things. Firstly, to increase and get our kiwi fruit in production. Secondly is to get our jujube program up and running. It's an exciting and variety with great demand. It's a great product. We are migrating out of heirloom pears, out of old variety pears, and we're introducing new variety pears and Nashi into that market, and we have some exciting developments happening there. It always takes time, but they're on their way. Hopefully that sums up that question.
Next question from Christian at Jarden. What do we consider to be prudent financial ratios, and are they aligned to the bank covenants?
The board regularly reviews what it would consider to be a prudent financial ratio. The question is around what do we consider prudent financial ratios. At the moment, I think the key ratio that we would talk about is our leverage ratio, so that is EBITDA to debt. We would be targeting to bring, over time, to bring that ratio under 2.5x . That's the key ratio that I think most analysts or banks are looking at. At the moment, the bank covenant is well higher than that. We have a program which we are working with the bank and had worked with the bank about that over time, over a sensible period of time, reduces that into alignment.
You know, in our own business, we've got long-term lease developments that we know we've invested alongside the government, which will bring volumes forward. That takes a little while for that capital to actually start repaying, both in terms of financial return as an orchard and also in terms of fruit going through our infrastructure. The bank's sensible about that. They understand what we're doing. They understand the program. We give them quite detailed forecasts and assumptions. Hopefully I've answered that question, Christian.
A second question from Christian, just around fruit quality issues that we had in FY 2022, and what that looks like going forward.
Industry had two sets of issues which I think contributed to what we would generically call fruit quality issues. Firstly, I think, at the beginning of the season, the industry understandably rushed things a little bit and perhaps didn't pick or process a fruit that was kind of as in grade as we'd like it to be as an industry. Actually, the fruit was reasonably unforgiving. Any small nicks in that growing season last year that we might have had on a piece of fruit turned to a rot quite quickly because it was so moist and so much humidity. Firstly, we probably had an issue with the fruit itself. Secondly, the supply chain didn't work as well as it could. Offshore were overloaded with fruit.
I think supply chain beyond our shores struggled to steward that fruit in the right order. We had extraordinary losses offshore. Extraordinary losses offshore. In the case of our own situation, with better labor, with a soft handling review that we have done across all of our machines, with new picking bags that Zespri will deploy into its own picking operations, which actually stops rough handling. That the new automation projects make us less reliant on seasonal labor, particularly at nighttime. Those things give me confident that we will beat the onshore problems around quality. You know, I think Zespri is going through the wringer to be honest about its own performance. I think that will resolve itself.
Every time I speak, another question comes in, so that's great. Keep them coming.
A very specific question. Is your 2.5x net debt-to-EBITDA ratio on pre or post IFRS 16 basis?
It's on pre. The question is our 2.5x debt-to-EBITDA ratio on pre or post IFRS 16? IFRS 16 is an international financial reporting standard which governs how we present leased assets, lease liabilities. Most sensible people can't understand it, and I am an accountant. Although my chairman's gonna give me a phone call directly after this, I'm sure, and tell me about why it does make sense. The 2.5x debt-to-EBITDA ratio is pre IFRS 16. It's accounting the way that everyone always accounted for. The lease cost is a cost. I'm waiting for another question, but it doesn't turn up.
No. Next question.
Oh.
Would the bank remain supportive through another poor volume year in 2024? What happens if in that scenario?
Look, I think the question is, will the banks remain supportive in a poor 2023 scenario? I think the answer is there is nothing that suggests that they won't be. I think if you look into the produce industry, if you look at the events that's happening in the Hawke's Bay, if you look at what's happening in Gisborne, you know, we are still profitable. We're actually still generating cash. We are still generating cash well in excess of our interest cost. We are working positively with our bankers. We are not giving them surprises. We are giving them commentary, open and honest dialogue, and we're working constructively with them, and we are proactively taking steps to optimize our financial results. We have limited expenditure. We have slowed the capital program.
You know, there's no, there's no suggestion at all from the banks there's any issue there. In fact, and look, the results that we have delivered are well within the range with which we had spoken to them about when we talked to them late last year, last quarter, last year. There's another one.
You've spoken about selling any non-core assets. What's the cost on those assets?
Well, at the moment, in the reported results, I think the number was $4.1 million, of which we sold some in Australia, AUD 3.1 million in water shares. I think the answer is that the review continues. We haven't actually targeted anything at the moment. When and if the board decides that's something that we will do, we'll come back and tell the market. If it's market sensitive, we always do that. At the moment, it's too early to say. We continue to look, continue to think about our business, continue to look, think about the portfolio assets that are in the book. Is there another question?
Yes. What are the cost out initiatives you spoke about, and how much could they be worth for the full year?
The cost out initiatives that we spoke about are largely around people and asset holdings and cost of holding assets. The full year cost out would be NZD 4.5 million. That's really through attrition, where roles, people have retired or left the company and we've actually reorganized the roles within the company so that we can cope without them. That really just sets us for any impacts that we weren't expecting, like the Hawke's Bay, or like, you know, a significant inflationary cost around insurance or something that, which we don't know about. Really, in the produce game, it's not like a spreadsheet. It is a little bit about managing life.
We actually set ourselves up to be able to buffer in case something bad happens that we weren't expecting.
David from Craigs would like you to elaborate on the sentence that there's growing sentiment among growers that the harvest must be completed earlier in the season.
Yeah. The question is about, put some color around the comments about, you know, the harvest should be completed earlier in the season. That's really around the Gold harvest and when is the right time to complete the Gold harvest. As part of our operational review process, we went and talked to growers about what were their expectations of the business. Their expectation of the business is that we don't have a Gold harvest sort of pushing into what we would call week 19. Week 19 is sort of somewhere after the 11th of May. The thinking is that while some orchards can cope with that, not all orchards can. You're actually running the gauntlet a little bit about if you push orchards after the 11th of May, that the fruit that you're handling is soft.
The way that the shipping works with Zespri works, you actually don't have the opportunity to move that fruit as you might or ship it out because you're actually committed to shipping other fruit really in a priority order. In our capacity plans that we've undertaken, we anticipate completing our harvest for Gold sort of somewhere mid-week 18. Somewhere about the 8th of May is a date that we think that we'll complete well ahead. 'Cause, you know, in that last week, we're really not running everything in anger. We're still packing the Hayward fruit, but the Gold fruit is really just into the tail. We expect to more than be able to meet our growers' expectations. I would also say to you that our capacity plans are set on a five-and-a-half-day operating week.
We do run six, or we do run seven as we need to. We also have got CA or controlled atmosphere storage as a way to buffer the company. Some more questions?
Yes. given we've had price increases in post-harvest over the last two years, given the year coming is a lower fruit volume year, and grower fruit returns are down, is there any pressure to reduce the pricing?
The question's around pricing and is there any pressure to reduce pricing. Well, the answer is there might be some pressure, but our pricing will be announced later on today. There are price increases coming. We have done some innovative things for our growers. I understand there's a competitor on the calls. We'll give you a heads up. We will, for example, be providing growers with an option to go fixed-year, three-year pricing, as one of the innovations that we will be rolling out today. There is some pricing that'll be announced later on today. Understanding there's another post-harvest company on this call. No. There's another one. There is one propped up with me. You sure? There's a quick one. No more questions. It's gone. Okay.
That's it from me. Thanks very much for all the questions. I thought that was really quite a good set of questions. If there's any other questions that people would like to ask and didn't feel comfortable asking in public, feel most free to contact us. Thank you very much for your interest in the company. Next stop will be sometime around June when we get to the end of harvest, and we're ready to talk about where we're up to. Of course, we have the annual shareholder meeting coming up in April. Notice will go out then in due course.