Disappointing. Take their avocado yields for example. For one of Australia’s biggest (and self proclaimed best) growers their yields appear to be way below industry average.
Qld avocado orchards.
Area = 558 Ha*
Quoted Total Yield = 704,126 trays
Total Yield = 3,872 tonnes (at 5.5kg/tray)
Avg Yield = 6.9 T/Ha
I’m very confident the majority of their Qld orchard area is mature. Their yields were lower last year implying the poor 6.9T/Ha result is actually an ‘on’ year (of biannual bearing). The rest of the industry was up 50% on last year but they are only up 15%.
From the Qld Dept of Ag website:
The average yield across all Australian orchards is a low 9t/ha. Low yields are often the result of:
- poor management of phytophthora root rot disease
- poor management of soil moisture
- poor and variable rootstocks
- poor nutrition management.
Growers using good rootstocks and good management of root rot, irrigation and nutrition can achieve average yields of over 20t/ha.
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This suggests that not only are Costa much worse than an average grower, they can hardly justify any of their sustainability claims. 65% less yield than a good grower but probably using the same amount of water is far from good stewardship with Australis finite resources. If only hot air was worth something.
KW and 2PH were leading citrus growers before Costa purchased them, reflected in the high purchase price. There’s two outcomes:
1. Costa are able to maintain those high yields at new orchards and apply those new learnings to lift productivity at the existing orchards. A win for shareholders but unlikely because of the toxic internal belief they are market leaders.
2. Costa apply their sub-par existing practices at the new orchards and drag the productivity down to below average levels. A big loss for shareholders but a more likely outcome.
*Area calculation: Costa quoted a total of 761 Ha, including 113 Ha in SA. This leaves 648Ha in Qld and NSW. I mapped the area of the NSW orchards (Comboyne and Fisherman’s) and it came to about 90Ha. So Qld orchard area for which the yields are quoted is 558Ha.
