Seeka on track to pick 2 million kilograms of kiwis

Harvest is drawing to a close across Seeka Australia’s nine Victorian kiwi fruit orchards. Favourable conditions mean it’s been a great one.

Seeka Australia’s kiwi fruit vines are laden with fruit.

But not for long, as the last of this year’s crop will be picked before the end of the month after a season of mild weather that has produced a “good-sized” crop and top-quality fruit.

The end of May will round out Seeka’s harvest of kiwi fruit across its nine orchards in Australia.

Seeka Kiwi Fruit’s general manager of operations Jon Van Popering on farm at Bunbartha. Picture: Zoe Phillips

The New Zealand Stock Exchange listed company is the largest kiwi fruit grower in Australia and New Zealand, with 95ha in production and 68ha in development across Bunbartha, in northern Victoria.

Seeka Australia’s general manager of operations Jon van Popering said so far about 1.2 million kilograms has been packed, with another 800,000 kilograms to go.

“This is in line with our expectations and about average across the years,” Mr van Popering said.

Jon among the vines at Bunbartha. Picture: Zoe Phillips

Quality was “exceptional”, with record pack-outs across the various varieties grown. This has been attributed to favourable summer conditions and “things just going to plan”.

“The last season has been mild, much like the year before with average temperatures lower

than we would expect for a northern Victorian summer, for our kiwi fruit crop this has been

great for growing large quality fruit – the kiwis don’t like the extreme heat – it was also

beneficial for our nashi crop, on the other hand it did make the pear maturity take a little

longer than anticipated but all in all things came together great,” he said.

Seeka Australia is the country’s largest producer of Hayward kiwifruit and Nashi pears. The company also grows European pears, apricots, plums and cherries.