Seeka Limited (NZE:SEK)
New Zealand flag New Zealand · Delayed Price · Currency is NZD
4.980
-0.010 (-0.20%)
Apr 29, 2026, 5:00 PM NZST
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Earnings Call: H1 2022

Aug 17, 2022

Michael Franks
CEO, Seeka

Good morning to you all. My warmest welcome to everyone who's on the call this morning. My name is Michael Franks. I'm the CEO here at Seeka. This webinar is coinciding with the release of our six months interim accounts to the 30th of June 2022. I have with me also in the room Nicola Neilson. She's the Chief Financial Officer. She's replaced Stuart McKinstry in April of this year coming back from maternity leave. We welcome her. This is her first formal reporting to shareholders and stakeholders in the company. Alongside her, we have Nick Reynolds, who is the Group Financial Controller. He's replaced Nicola in the role, we're privileged to have him in the team. He was with the company before.

We also have Jim Smith, General Manager, Growers and Marketing. An experienced person within the company sitting alongside us in case we have any questions that are operational beyond our ability to answer. In the agenda today, we're gonna talk about the highlights for the company in the first six months, the balance sheet, our operating segments performance, our forward focus, and your ability to contact us. This webinar this morning is coinciding right alongside our announcements. I think in future, we might do it a day or two later to give the analysts and readers a chance to digest and think about the accounts.

We would welcome and invite anyone on the call or any of our stakeholders to contact myself or Nicola directly subsequent to this call, if they wish to. With that, we'll get on with the business. It's been a challenging six months for the company. We've had a lot of issues to contend with, a lot of headwinds, I don't need to tell you. They include COVID. COVID actually still is impacting us at the moment, as well as general winter sickness in our repack teams across the business. With COVID-19, you know, we've run the full protocols within the business to keep people safe.

At its peak impact on us, we had around 580 people out either isolating or sick with COVID-19. A reasonable number of people. Alongside that, we had a general labor shortage. You know, we struggled to get our shed operations full. We've had to redeploy people and play them out of position to get the job done. We took people out of support roles and deployed them to post-harvest. Orchard managers in the company also worked in post-harvest. We've scrambled to innovate to get the job done and keep service up, particularly through the season. We would thank the government officials who helped us get access to more RSEs. They were greatly appreciated. We've also had issues around inflation or headwinds with inflation.

I think it's the best way to put it. Labor inflation's certainly gone up a lot. We've had inflation around transport costs and fuel. And so, you know, we've had a significant number of headwinds in front of us as a business. Weather hasn't helped. We had an unseasonably late start to the harvest over in Gisborne. Normally, it would be very early in its maturity. This year, it was late. And then it rained, just to remind you. So that created a maturity bubble for us to deal with. We had a wind in Ōpōtiki prior to Christmas last year. That actually impacted orchards in that region particularly hard. We lost an estimated 2 million trays through that weather event.

You know, if it's not one thing, it's another. Now, later in the season, we are coping and contending with shipping disruption as we work alongside Zespri to take the fruit that we've got in store and ship it out to the market. We did have to contend with a late machine commissioning at KKP. That's a highly automated machine that we've got installed now. It was supposed to be commissioned on the sixth of April. It was commissioned in the last week of harvest in early June. It was late because some key components for that machine were held up in Singapore, and we couldn't get it down and commissioned till late.

You know, we had to scramble, move capacity around, bring on extra shifts, run a lot harder to actually get the crop put away. Generally with Sadie, we've got lower yields right across the catchment. We've got a lower volume, not just because of the Ōpōtiki wind, you know, we have had a volume impact in the business. Late in the year, crop quality's actually been quite poor. You would have seen that in the commentaries from Zespri and from myself in the last few weeks that we are contending with quality issues across the inventory at the moment. We're working pretty hard to get those out. Company is still operating at full capacity. We are repacking fruit right across the business.

We are struggling to keep up with demand to load that fruit out. People are working very, very hard. I would at this point thank the people who work in the company, our employees. I would thank our contracting community who really did work and help us particularly well and was appreciated through the season. I thank our grower community who has tolerated what has been quite a challenging period for the company and the kiwifruit industry, generally. To the high level numbers, revenue at NZD 247.3 million. Our EBITDA, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization, at NZD 49.4 million. Our profit before tax at NZD 30.1 million, NZD 0.52 EPS. I'll update those in a minute.

We have now got a five-bank syndicate in place, where we used to have one before. We have available debt lines, NZD 211 million, subject to us maintaining covenants. The lead bank is Westpac. We've also got Westpac Australia, Rabobank, ASB Bank, and the Bank of New Zealand, and we thank them for their support of the business. Company's got total assets now just under NZD 600 million at NZD 594.4 million. We have net tangible asset backing per share of NZD 6.07. We are continuing to invest in automation. We are making sure as we focus on core business, we're hunkered down at the moment, focused on operations and maintaining and achieving efficiencies and good returns for the growers who support us.

We also have an eye on next year. We are looking at capacity. We have got KKP in play now for next year. We have got Transcool, the cool store, up and available. It was through the season. We are upgrading Oakside machine number three to put an automated pre-sizer and camera grading on the front of that machine, and we have got an investment going into NZ Fruits in Gisborne, which is around palletizing and getting product away from the machine. That last investment was agreed to when we purchased that business earlier in the year. Kiwifruit volumes and yields in particular are down on the corresponding previous period. Hayward yields are down 21.5%. That's per hectare yields are down 21.5%, and SunGold down 10.5%.

It's true that the Ōpōtiki storm is a contributing factor, but actually the yields are down across all regions. The company and the board has determined that it's appropriate to pay no dividend at this time. We really are gonna reserve that decision to later in the year. We wanna see a bit more water to go under the bridge. We wanna get a bit more certainty about the full year's earnings. Appropriately, we have reserved the decision for the moment. We'll come back and address that later on in the year. That's prudent given where the industry and where Seeka is at. We are continuing to look at capacity.

We are continuing to look forward to make sure that we can make profitable investments, that we will have the capacity to handle the fruit for our growers, going forward, understanding that it takes about 18 months to two years now to get a capacity expansion in and underway. We're having to look out a lot further than we used to have. In the old days, you know, we would decide something six months before and have it ready to be operated the day before. It's a lot longer lead times now to get capacity and plants built. We're looking at all options on that. The board's reviewing it in October. Sustainability report has been released. Company's quite proud of the progress that we have made in understanding the sustainability equation for Seeka.

We have verified three years of carbon footprint information using Toitū. That's been independently verified. We understand where and what parts of our business and operations impact on the environment. We have got targets set for to reduce our carbon footprint going forward. Also, the company's making strides to understand exactly what is the impact of climate change on our business. As a publicly listed company, you will see us reporting more about that as we move forward. In terms of the numbers themselves, well, revenue at NZD 247.3 million is up 10% on the previous corresponding period. EBITDA, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization, up 5%. Our profit after tax, NZD 30.1 million. It's down 2%.

Profit after tax at NZD 21.5 million is up 4% on a PCP. I would remind all people on the call that we are a seasonal business. The first half of the year is our core period for, you know, generating income and work. You know, the second six months of the year with, we are actually still loading out fruit, but it's largely cost management. I'd also say to you, as we talk about this, you know, we have got a big volume variance in the company. We expected volumes to be far higher than what they are, and they are unseasonably down on where we might have reasonably expected. We'll call it unseasonably. It really reflects things that we don't understand. It's a term that we use.

We know that we did have an impact with the storm in Ōpōtiki. We have got growers over there, you know, yields have been really decimated. You know, volumes are well down where we might have reasonably expected them to be, particularly after the acquisitions we made last year. In terms of the financial performance, the graphs probably look a little bit better than they are. EBIT, EBITDA, 18% compound annual growth rate. You know, our expectation and our hope, expectation probably a better word, is that next year the volumes return to normal. Therefore, these numbers will start heading in the right direction again. NPAT, you can see there, 23% compound annual growth rate over the last five years. Total assets, just under NZD 600 million at NZD 594 million.

Asset backing at NZD 6.05 per share. In terms of segment performance. In terms of the orchards, segment performance is down at NZD 5.1 million EBITDA, really reflecting an increase in costs, reflecting a reduction in yield, and an expected reduction in orchard gate returns from the market. In terms of post-harvest, NZD 52.9 million, compared to NZD 49.1 million last year. Really, still going up, but we would have expected those volumes to have gone up a lot more than that, and therefore that segment to perform stronger than it has. SeekaFresh Retail Services has suffered some market disruption. We've had, you know, lockdowns and COVID and a whole range of things happening in that market. You know, we're now rebuilding that business yet again.

We're resetting it to a more profitable pathway. We have picked up some key accounts. We are a supplier, for example, to Costco, when it opens. You know, that business is in a state of being reset. In terms of Australia, EBIT, EBITDA at NZD 2.6 million is similar to last year at NZD 2.7 million. This really reflects what happened two years ago, in Australia, when we were tying down the crop that we've harvested this year. We're short of labor. It's a COVID issue. We tied down less canopy and less crop, and we damaged it as we tied it down. The volumes were affected with kiwifruit. This year it's much better. They actually had a much better run with labor. They've actually got a lot better canopy tied down.

In fact, you know, a 20% increase in buds tied down at this point in time. You know, the outlook there for Australia, we're reasonably confident with. Looking at the balance sheet. Capital employed at 13th of June 2022, NZD 76.3 million increase in capital employed. A NZD 54 million increase in property, plant, and equipment. Reflects really Orangewood and NZ Fruits acquisitions. It also reflects the automation and capacity expansion that we've done at KKP with the canopy and building extension and a new 8-lane MAF Roda, a highly automated machine in there, although it was late. We've got the cool store build and a capacity increase at Transcool, 650,000 tray store right across the road here from Seeka 360.

NZD 4.7 million investments. These are really reflected in the company's continuing investment in long-term lease developments. To a large extent, alongside iwi and alongside the Provincial Growth Fund now known as Kānoa. You know, the balance sheet continues to strengthen in terms of assets. Bank debt, NZD 161.3 million is up NZD 33.4 million. Includes NZD 16.5 million of debt in cash for the Orangewood and NZ Fruits investments, and a NZD 20 million upgrade at KKP and Transcool. Also, you know, two weeks after we actually reported, we received monies back from Seeka Growers Limited. Seeka Growers Limited is our grower fund. In the early stages of the season, we advanced money to growers as they submit fruit into store.

We do that from our own banking lines. Two weeks after we reported, we actually banked NZD 38 million back into the account to bring the total debt down. We have got the five-bank funding syndicate in place with a NZD 211 million total debt line. We have some assets that are held for sale, some orchard assets. Some of these are the residual assets that we purchased when we purchased the T&G assets in Northland, the last of those, and also one orchard for sale over in Ōpōtiki that we acquired when we purchased OPAC. We have sold an orchard since that time, just a small sale, NZD 550, 000. That has been recorded now and gone unconditional. That's happened outside the sixth.

You know, we are progressing our way to sell those. Not critical, but these are assets that, you know, don't fit our strategy. They don't fit the core driver of what we're trying to do in the business. We've largely acquired those as part of other acquisitions, and we're selling them. In terms of the EBITDA multiple, EBITDA to debt, purely calculated 3.17 to one. Our EBITDA multiple pre-IFRS 16 for leases. Calculating it the way that people who are like me, old, would calculate it, 3.71x. All of our banking covenants have been maintained through the six-month reporting cycle. EPS NZD 0.52 a share. We've issued more shares.

Last year at the same time, I think we had 39.4 million shares on issue. At the end of the sixth, we had NZD 42 million. There is some dilution effect. There's no dividend payable at this time, as we're determined that we're just gonna let a bit more water flow under the bridge so we can see exactly how the year plays out, and get a better understanding. We need to understand exactly what happens with our market returns for the last of the fruit coming in. For EPS NZD 0.52, down from NZD 0.65 at the same time last year. NZD 6.07, sorry, is our net tangible assets per share. That's up 12%.

In terms of our full year operational guidance, we have maintained the range that we've previously advised to the market and to stakeholders and shareholders. We're expecting full year profit before tax would be between NZD 9 million and NZD 11 million. Now last year, also, we had a NZD 7.6 million gain with the settlement of the Kiwifruit Claim. That's obviously not happening this year. But it is a reduction in profit before tax. The acquisitions that we made all came with an overhead structure that we have tightened up and we've actually shortened up. It's actually, we've got control of our overheads. Really what we're talking about here is the issue around volume and more recently, quality. Just a look. If I take some time now to go through the segment performance. In terms of our orcharding operations.

In this part of our business, in this part of our business, we grow kiwifruit, avocados, and Kiwiberry in New Zealand, largely for New Zealand orchard owners. We have a few owned orchards, but largely they're land banked or they are orchards for sale. NZD 45.7 million in revenue is down 15% on the previous corresponding period. EBITDA at NZD 5.1 million is down 10%. We've got an increase in crop volumes because we've purchased more businesses. Actually we've got a lower yield per hectare than what we had anticipated. Our yields for Hayward are down 31% in this part of our business. Our SunGold yields are down 7.3%.

You've got this thing where people say, "Well, how can you be saying you've got lower yields but a higher volume?" Well, the higher volume's got more orchards. We've got a lower yield because each of the orchards we've got in the book has produced less crop than what we expected. We have had excellent Kiwiberry performance. It's only a very small part of our business. But, you know, the Orchard Gate Return in that part of our business, you know, has been maintained at more than NZD 200,000 per ha for the last five years. That's pretty good. We've got a reasonable amount of orchards that are in development that will come into production progressively over the next two or three years, with some coming in next year.

We've got 46 ha of SunGold, 91 ha of Hayward, a lot of it up in Raukokore in that Te Kaha region. We've got 5 ha of Red in Northland, actually on an orchard which is for sale, and in due diligence at the moment. Now, post-harvest operations. Post-harvest revenue at NZD 178.5 million is up 23% on previous corresponding period. EBITDA at NZD 52.9 million is up 8%. Gisborne maturity was late. You know, each of the last 15 years, around 80% of the Gisborne fruit has matured in the first weeks of harvest. This year was 15%, and then it rained.

You know, that gave us a headache because we had compressed capacity issues as the crop came on, and we needed to pack it all over the place. We had a delay, as I've said before, in the commissioning of the KKP machine. Look, we're delighted with that machine. It's absolutely. We're delighted with it. All who have seen it's a very good machine. The problem was it was late. We had to pivot and scramble and work out and go to our contingency plans so that we could actually handle the crop as close to as optimum maturity as we could. At one stage, we had over 1,100 people short in this company through COVID-19. We hire around 4,500 seasonal workers, a lot of them on the orchards.

Most of the people we were short were in post-harvest, because people, you know, didn't mind working outside, but working in a pack house was difficult to recruit them to. We had a pinch point there. We actually went and had a conversation with the officials in Wellington, and thankfully, they gave us some relief by giving us access to more RSEs, which was just desperately needed at that moment, and we applaud them for and we're appreciative of. In terms of SeekaFresh Retail Services at NZD 8.1 million in revenue. It was down on previous year by 26%, half a million in EBITDA. We're continuing to innovate. It's a business where you have to innovate. We're getting new customers. We're increasing local market volumes.

We're actually concentrating on the banana business at the moment. We're getting actually quite good support. We're expecting that to improve its profit performance over the last quarter of the year, given the innovations that we've put in place. Still a disappointing result at the sixth, in spite of the hard work going on in that business. In terms of our Australian operation, NZD 14.4 million in revenue, up 4%. We've had ongoing labor and market disruption in COVID-19. Although I would say to you that the business environment in Australia has been actually quite good. A lot of support mechanisms over there to assist businesses. We've been able to bring in RSEs, which has been very positive. We have had inflation in and around labor inflation.

You've had to pay a minimum rate, not a piece rate. That's been. We've been working through those issues, but the market's been good. The product's been well accepted. You know, the price that we've been getting for Hayward has been, you know, we're very happy with it. Our issue is to actually get the yields up because we were yield impacted. You can see kiwifruit tonnes there. That 1,765 tonnes is down 70% on the 2,115 tonnes the year prior. You know, NZD 1.17 million EBIT after the lease costs. After allowing for the cost of leasing our kiwifruit orchards over there, we still made NZD 1.17 million EBIT. We know we're optimistic about going forward.

We've got some exciting new varieties, not necessarily kiwifruit, that we're investing in in that part of the world to innovate and bring new products through to market. Talking about our forward focus. Well, you know, we have traded profitably through a challenging six months and continued to deliver service to our customers and growers and the people who consume our fruit, who wanna buy healthy, well-presented, high-quality fruit in the market, who wanna share that passion with us. We've had to contend with COVID, weather, shipping, labor, harvest dynamics, volume, and quality. You know, just if it's not one thing, it's another, it seemed over the first six months.

We are, of course, again, grateful for our staff who have worked extremely hard, and at times unsustainably hard, and who continue to work long, hard hours now to work through the inventory we've got remaining in store. We do thank our contracted community. We do thank our picking contractors and orchard contractors who support and spray, the guys who spray, who support the business. Of course, we thank our growers. Looking forward, we are all focused on next year, pretty much outside of what we're doing today. Our primary focus, we're hunkered down. We, you know, we're focusing our business day by day. You know, we're now focused on next year. We have secured an increase in RSE numbers, which we appreciate for next year. You know, that gives us even better certainty.

We are investing in RSE accommodation and have leased some additional facilities, and we're talking to people about getting access to additional facilities to lease to actually accommodate RSEs when they come in. You know, over 1,300 RSEs confirmed for Seeka next year compared to 900 this year. We're grateful for that. We are revising the forward capacity plan. We believe that we have adequate capacity to handle the crop for next year with the investments that we've made in this. In addition, we have brought forward the planned completion date for SunGold from around the eighteenth of May to the eleventh of May in the plan.

We are, of course, looking at options for more cool storage, that we'll need in two or three years' time if the crop volume continues to go up. We have some optimism going forward, and we believe that, you know, next year the yields on the orchards will return, you know, to normal, and that this was a seasonal, fluctuation that we don't truly understand. If you need to contact me, well, you would be welcome to. That is my number, and of course, you've got Nicola Neilson, there. Or you can email us nicola.neilson@seeka.co.nz or michael.franks@seeka.co.nz. You're most welcome to. Now, I understand, 'cause I've seen it flash up on my screen, that there is a question. You don't? Oh, sorry.

Operator

There's just been a question, maybe a bit more light on RSE accommodation.

Michael Franks
CEO, Seeka

Yeah. For those of you who don't know, RSEs are Recognized Seasonal Employers. It's a system that we can run that can bring people in, predominantly from the Pacific Islands, but, and this year again from Malaysia. The way that it works in the modern age and today is that we largely haven't been recruiting these people. They've been recruited for us. Their arrivals are not regular. We might get told on Friday that we've got people coming in on Sunday, and we need to find some accommodation for them. What we're doing is actually investing in facilities that we're gonna build one of our own in Sharp Road in Katikati. We've leased a facility out here in Te Puke.

The one in Katikati will have 140 beds. The one we've just leased here in Te Puke has got 112, I think. Just to give us ready access to accommodation that is of good standard that we can accommodate these people in when they come in.

Operator

The next question is from Adrian Alba. If you could comment more on current harvest issues and when you expect to get better visibility?

Michael Franks
CEO, Seeka

I think when Adrian Alba's asked about the current harvest issues, there's two aspects to answering that question because it's a little bit broad. Firstly, we've got reviews happening across the company, as we would normally do across all aspects of harvest, to work out the things that we could have done better in getting the fruit into the shed. That's normal around scheduling or monitoring or the decision support tools we might have around deciding whether we should harvest or delay. In and around the pricing and how we price for service and how we incentivize or penalize certain crop quality issues in the shed. More recently, however, the fruit that we've got in store and actually probably throughout the whole harvest has shown some issues in the inventory.

There are three issues predominantly that's led to those challenges. Firstly, we've got, you know, fruit which was damaged in the process of picking it. The fruit, for whatever reason, this year seems to be more delicate than it has been in any other time that we've handled fruit. A lot more delicate. So the process of picking it may have damaged that fruit in spite of how delicate or otherwise our picking contractors might have been. And so, you know, that's led to issues in the inventory around Alternaria or, you know, fruit being out of spec. The second issue that we've got is like a skin rub. It's called a superficial skin rub actually, is what we're calling it, and it's a rash on the fruit that's occurred sometime after the fruit's been handled.

In the process of either picking it and putting it into a bin and then transporting that bin to the shed, or in the process of tipping the bin, rolling it across a grading machine and putting it into a box, that fruit has got some discoloration on it that's turned up two or three weeks later. Not all of that fruit's been able to be captured in New Zealand. Some of it's been exported offshore. What we're doing at the moment is making sure all of the fruit that we have in store as we load it out is checked, is in spec, meets the quality requirements, will go to the market, support the brand, and deliver us a premium, a premium return. Slightly higher loss rates. Well, actually a lot higher loss rates than we've had in the past.

There will be a number of industry reviews undertaken after this year to understand exactly what's happened, and what we can do next year to avoid it. We'll sort that out.

Operator

The next question is when you expect the debt to peak for the year.

Michael Franks
CEO, Seeka

Oh, the debt peaks at the 30th of June. When do we expect the debt to peak? The peak debt is at the 30th of June, and largely heads back down from that point to the end of the year. The 30th of June is the peak. Given that we've already invested a lot of our capital already in terms of the KKP machine and the Transcool cool store upgrade. The peak debt has peaked. The two upgrades we've got going at the moment, and we've already paid deposits on and, you know, we're paying as they go, is the machine over in Gisborne at NZ Fruits, we're calling it Seeka Gisborne now, and at Oakside 3.

We don't have a heavy capital outlay going forward for the rest of the year.

Operator

I've got a question from Sam asking if you could comment on Hi-Cane and the risk to Seeka.

Michael Franks
CEO, Seeka

Yeah, no, that's a good question. So the question from Sam is about the review by the Environmental Protection Authority around the continuing use of hydrogen cyanamide. In that review, the EPA is considering whether or not they should reduce or withdraw the use of Hi-Cane over the next five years. The effect of Hi-Cane is that it is a bud break enhancer. Effectively, it's a non-systemic product. It's a product when you apply it to the kiwifruit, it increases the natural levels of hormone within the plant so that it breaks everywhere and you get a more uniform bud break, so you get a lot more flowers, and they all flower at the same time.

When you take Hi-Cane away, the fear is, for Hayward, that it will return to the yields that you would have with organic fruit. You know, we would be reducing the yields in the Hayward block somewhere between 20%-40% in five years' time. At that time, if you think about it, there's a lot more kiwifruit coming on. There's a lot more kiwifruit planted. There is new hectares coming into production. Therefore, you know, it takes away that peak load and then maybe the need to invest more money. Our board is working through the scenarios. What does it look like if we don't lose Hi-Cane, which we'd like not to happen? What would it look like if we do lose Hi-Cane?

What is the sensible investments that we might make around capacity to ensure that the company is well-positioned, for its growers and for its shareholders going forward?

Operator

The final question is just whether you could comment on the quality of accommodation for RSEs?

Michael Franks
CEO, Seeka

Well, I can say to you that the quality of accommodation for RSEs has probably been. Some of it's excellent, some of it's, you know, like, beyond. It's very, very good, and some of it's substandard. There's no point in. It's substandard for a number of reasons. It's substandard because accommodation options that have been available to the company either have been withdrawn or they've been bought for social housing or bought for other reasons. You know, we haven't been able to get access to the same suite. Of course, we had a situation with COVID where we weren't sure we're gonna be able to get RSEs.

It's a hard thing to do, to invest shareholder money or make a commitment on a lease when you're not sure when you've got the people. It's a balanced equation. The company has responsibly looked at the accommodation standards it's providing to its RSE workers when they leave their communities and come to New Zealand to work for us, to ensure that they've got good quality accommodation, and we will progressively fix that. I'd also say to you that one of the issues that we have around RSEs is not confined to us. You know, if we get 90 RSEs confirmed for us on a Friday to arrive on a Sunday, then we need to get bank accounts open for those people so that we can pay them.

Of course, you know, in regions that we operate in, banks aren't open. They open two days a week for two hours, and they can't onboard 90 people in any reasonable time. We've offered, for example, the banks to come to our offices and do it here. But of course, money laundering, Anti-Money Laundering legislation prevents that. You know, there's a lot of things for us to do in and around our RSE workforce. We are mobilized. We have investments being made in place. We're working with our banks to get timely bank accounts opened. We are.

We're also working with the high commissioners from each of the countries that the RSE people come from to ensure that we are working alongside them so that the RSE people get a good gig. Are there any other questions?

Operator

Just one more question from Sam Jerry, whether or not you've got comments on the Zespri producer vote next week.

Michael Franks
CEO, Seeka

Oh, thanks, Sam. That's kind of like asking me to put the landmine down and then welcome Liz to stand on it. Zespri have got a producer vote happening next week that is asking for growers to authorize them to plant another 10,000 ha of SunGold in Europe to complement out-of-season production from New Zealand. We have chosen to stay silent on the matter. We would be drawn into really what is grower politics, and we'd prefer not to go there. We're a commercial operation. We are not a shareholder in Zespri and would make the comment that that's largely shareholder-driven, that initiative. That's really for growers to decide what they wanna do, and we respect their decision.

Operator

No further questions.

Michael Franks
CEO, Seeka

Right. Thank you very much for taking the time to hop onto the call today. If you've got any comments about things that we could show you that you wanna see more of or less of, then we'll welcome those. We would invite you to talk to us directly. We've already got calls from the media, which we'll handle after this seminar. Look, any feedback, if you wanna talk to us one-on-one, if you have other questions, look, please don't hesitate. We would love to hear from you. Thanks very much for your time this morning, and go well.

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