We wish to give a summary of our actions and plans in place while we navigate through the next few weeks, in a lock-down situation in New Zealand, and explain any implications for you, our valued customers.
We understand this is a very difficult time for people, everywhere, and we hope you all are staying safe, and keeping good health. The health and safety of all our people is our highest priority.
New Zealand entered a lock down period of four weeks, starting on 25th March 2020. New Zealand Hops is fully aligned with all government instructions and safe work practices.
New Zealand Essential Services - continuity of supply
Food and beverage manufacturing has been classified as an 'Essential Business' in NZ and New Zealand Hops has successfully been registered as an 'Essential Business'. This gives us the ability to complete our harvest and to ensure continuity of supply for our customers. We have had a fantastic harvest, and its been a real joy to receive bale after bale of highly quality NZ grown hops into our stores.
Operating as an essential business, means for us very broadly:
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Only approved and signed staff remain on-site (all others are working from home).
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Strict hygiene standards are in place and staff are fully trained in meeting all requirements in accordance with Covid-19 restrictions.
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No visitors are permitted at the NZ Hops site through the lockdown period.
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This week our focus is on receipting the 2020 harvest.
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Our service to our NZ customers continues, however, dispatch of orders is on hold today and tomorrow and will resume from Monday 30th March.
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We remain open for business for international enquiries.
Stocks, Orders & Dispatch
We continue to receive and process orders on a daily basis. However, note that our focus this week (with limited staff on-site) is to finish receipting the 2020 harvest. We will resume our normal daily order dispatch process from Monday 30th March. Please note courier service may be less frequent so there may be some delays in delivery.
We have good supplies of key NZ Hop varieties. Contract holders receive priority of supply in all cases so please refer to CraftWeb for confirmation of supply. Going forward the inventory available will vary by variety until we process the new crop, so we recommend you carry additional stock if you can.
Yeast stocks are good, with additional supply already on the water and due in at the end of April. For those businesses still able to operate we see no major disruption to your supply.
Forward Contracts
We hope to keep any disruption to Forward Contracts, to a minimum. However, in all cases we have postponed the final contract deliveries for NZ2019 contracts, to ease the burden on customers who have been recently affected. We will resume discussions around contracts in a few weeks once the dust has settled and we have reviewed the global situation.
We fully understand everyone's situation will be different for now, so please get in touch with any concerns you have around contracts. Contact George Tunstall.
Keeping you up to date
These are changeable times. We aim to communicate with you on a regular basis to ensure you fully understand any changes that may affect contracts or supply of our hops. Your business is our business and we are all in this together.
Looking forward, early indications are that the 2020 harvest has been a bumper season. We are excited about the quality of hops we see coming into our centre and we can't wait to bring these to you later in the year.
Stay safe and stay in touch.
Cheers
Craig