Michael Franks

And what we needed to do was make the changes in that time so that when we did come back, we were far more resilient and far more conservatively set financially and operationally as a company.

And that's exactly where we are now.

So we held to the strategy.

It's delivered pretty well.

We held our nerve all the way through there.

And that in itself was a skill.

But thankfully now things have got better and we have rewarded our shareholders with higher returns and higher dividends.

The things that are driving us to a better place is that we have got a sector which is growing.

Cespri are releasing new varieties.

More orchards are being developed and coming into production in the regions and here centrally.

And so there should be good demand for our occupancy in the future for that part of our business.

And so, you know, the headwinds notwithstanding, there are some tailwinds behind us, which strategically should play out quite well.

So Seeker Fresh is quite an important part of our business because most of what we're handling, most of the fruit that we're handling is going through to Zespri.

But actually the fruit that we don't supply to Zespri, whatever the variety is, is marketed through a company called Seeker Fresh.

That company's exporting avocados around the world, it's exporting kiwi berry around the world, sometimes in conjunction with Fresh Maxx.

It is also importing produce to New Zealand, bananas, seven or eight containers a week, pineapple, papaya, as well as marketing avocados, kiwi fruit and kiwi berries inside New Zealand.

So we have our own wholesale market running in Auckland, handling all of those activities, effectively connecting the company through to retailers and the consumer.

Well, the answer is there's a lot of activity and a lot of action there, and it's got momentum behind it.

So it's not a big part of our business, but it's going tremendously well.

Okay.