Seeka Kiwifruit Industries’ chief executive Michael Franks is confident a large-scale fire at the company’s Oakside post-harvest facility will have no impact on its throughput during the upcoming New Zealand kiwifruit season.
Franks said the blaze broke out in the Oakside site’s north shed during the late hours of Wednesday evening (4 March). In a company statement Seeka confirmed the north shed had been totally destroyed.
The north shed is typically used later in the season for quality checking and repacking fruit prior to dispatch. The site’s main packhouse, forecourt, curing canopy, and rear coolstores are all understood to be unaffected by the incident.
Seeka carries comrehensive insurance cover on the site, with Franks insisting there will be no disruption to this season’s programmes.
“The company will undertake the repairs and operational changes to enable the upcoming kiwifruit season to run without any adverse effect to our growers,” Franks said in the company statement. Seeka anticipates to process more than 9m class 1 trays of kiwifruit at the Oakside site in 2015.
