Turners & Growers (T&G) has posted a post-tax NZ$18.3m (US$15.27m) loss for calendar 2011, a result attributed to write-downs in orchard values and one-off costs from the takeover bid of German company BayWa.
T&G’s 2011 loss is in contrast to the NZ$6.3m (US$5.26m) net profit for 2010, but the company has claimed the year’s results without the write-downs were better than 2010 “and one of the highest for a number of years”.
Removing the NZ$32.5m (US$27.12m) in write-downs from its results indicated a result of NZ$13.6m (US$11.35m), reported BusinessDesk.
The re-valuation of T&G’s orchard assets was blamed on the Psa disease affecting kiwifruit in New Zealand, the high exchange rate, and the difficult trading environment for the country’s apple and pear exports.
“Of concern is the poor pipfruit return for New Zealand growers, including Jazz, where returns are lower than desired,” T&G’s chairman Rob Campbell said in a statement.
“The high New Zealand dollar against the traditional export markets is making it very difficult to increase orchard gate returns.”
Subsidiaries Enza and Delica increased their contributions to the company’s bottom line, increasing both export volumes and margins. Status Produce, T&G’s tomato production subsidiary, also had a record year.
Campbell said T&G would not pay a dividend this year because of the potential change in ownership to BayWa.
