Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Costa Group Holdings Ltd first half calendar year 2022 results presentation conference call. All participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question-and-answer session. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Sean Hallahan, Managing Director and CEO. Mr. Hallahan, please go ahead. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Costa Group Holdings Limited results presentation for the half year CY 2022. My name is Sean Hallahan, and I'm the CEO and Managing Director of Costa. Joining me in this presentation is Wayne Johnston, Costa Group's Chief Financial Officer. I would like to start with an acknowledgment of country. In the spirit of reconciliation, Costa acknowledges the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea, and community. We pay our respects where we live, work, and grow, and across all Costa locations, to elders past and present, and extend that respect to all First Nations people today. Now on to the presentation, and I'd like to begin with the key highlights covering the half year. Firstly, I'm pleased to report the company delivered a strong operating performance in line with guidance, with 12.6% EBITDA-S growth and a 10.8% increase in underlying NPAT-S versus PCP. The result highlights the quality of our asset base, which includes protected cropping and the utilization of advanced manufacturing technology, the benefits of a diversified portfolio, and the market-leading position Costa has across high-demand fresh produce categories. Over the first half, there was strong execution on our strategic growth capital projects, namely the Monarto mushroom facility and the new Glasshouse 4 tomato capacity, both delivering improved return on employed capital. Our international segment continues to build, contributing an outstanding performance driven by China with a pleasing Morocco performance considering disruption to European markets and our replanting program. A solid increase in our emerging region's genetics licensing revenue was driven by strong growth traction of our global leading blueberry variety improvement program, otherwise known as VIP. Speaking of our VIP program, it was very pleasing to see a positive contribution from the successful execution of our Far North Queensland premium Delight blueberry strategy with this variety having been specifically bred as part of the VIP program. The lack of access to key avocado export markets, including Japan, continues to be a source of frustration. This is affecting all industry participants, resulting in difficult avocado trading conditions despite continued focus on cost containment. As a result of these industry challenges, we've decided to take a non-cash goodwill impairment of AUD 2.2 million. With respect to labor, Costa continues to successfully manage labor availability and COVID-related issues in both domestic and international operations. Moving to the financial headlines for the half. Revenue was up 15.7% versus PCP, with EBITDA-S of AUD 140 million, up 12.6% versus PCP. Underlying NPAT-S of AUD 49.2 million was up 10.8% versus PCP. Wayne will explain this metric in more detail, but underlying NPAT-S is NPAT-S excluding the first half 2022 incremental impacts versus first half 2021 of the renegotiated Vitalharvest leases and the 2PH acquisition. Financial performance saw solid EBITDA-S growth across the segments versus PCP. In produce, there was growth in sales from additional capacity, improved production, and market demand. In the international segment, the increased production area in China delivered additional volumes and favorable pricing despite COVID lockdowns towards the end of the season. We have taken the opportunity to present current and historical EBITDA-S numbers to provide an overall compound annual growth rate since Costa's IPO in 2015 up to the most recent half year. We have increased our earnings profile over that period and achieved a double-digit average return through concentrating on both organic growth and strategic capital acquisitions and expansion. This has been targeted, including investing in broader geographical diversity, most notably the establishment of operations in China, the acquisition of quality citrus assets to expand our key growing regions to three, enhancing the value and yields from our protected cropping assets across berries, tomatoes, and mushrooms, and by maintaining an unrelenting focus on our customer and consumer needs, supported by the premium quality and diversity of our product offering. The company continues to strive to be the industry leader in sustainable commercial farming of premium quality fresh produce. Our strategy is encapsulated under the headings of capability, objective, sustainable commercial farming, technical superiority, and ambition. We have been very focused on driving returns from long-term invested capital and delivering on execution of our capital expenditure projects. These projects, which include international growth, expansion of our most modern and lowest cost mushroom production facility at Monarto in South Australia, the establishment of a new nursery and additional 10 hectares of tomato glasshouse at Guyra in Northern New South Wales, all involve elements of those key components of our strategy. We have invested in technology to drive increased yield. We have enhanced the range and quality of our varieties to attract a price premium and penetrate new export markets. We have targeted efficiencies in the cost of production, most notably with the Monarto facility, which is our lowest cost of production facility in our mushroom growing network. Our new 2.5 hectares tomato nursery is designed to allow for maximum flexibility to ensure seedlings can be produced at the best time to coincide with market demand. Between 80-90 varieties are currently in trial, scheduled to deliver circa 700,000 plants in the next 12 months for Costa and our third-party growers. Growth in our international operations is underpinned by leveraging our superior agronomic expertise in genetics. In China, increasing household income and greater health awareness is leading to greater discretionary spending, with increased demand for premium fresh produce and a willingness to pay the premium. Costa's Arana jumbo blueberry variety is leading this market growth, where we receive a higher percentage price premium for Arana than in any other global market. From this, we will continue to evaluate new opportunities relating to location, climate, and varieties, including growing cooler climate blueberries. Finally, in citrus, we are focused on developing and accessing new proprietary varieties, including sensory attributes such as greater color, fewer or no seeds, and sweeter taste. Costa has spent over 15 years developing a number of key citrus export markets and building our brand. The access we now have to the 2PH breeding program is a step towards Costa's strategic goal of further building a global citrus footprint and achieving 52-week supply of Vitor and 2PH-branded citrus into Asian markets. Last but not least, our great people are the key to our ability to execute on this strategy. We will continue to invest in attracting the best people as an industry employer of choice, including providing industry-leading career pathways and development in which they can play a part in finding more sustainable and productive methods to grow premium fresh produce. Costa is Australia's leading innovative horticultural company. We have the leading market position in attractive produce categories, supported by proprietary IP, leading growing techniques, and best-in-class technology. Our premier asset base is the largest across highly valued fresh produce consumer categories. Our current operational footprint provides for further production capacity. Our highly attractive and differentiated business model, which is characterized by category and geographic diversity, 52-week supply, and protected cropping, gives Costa a distinct and ongoing competitive advantage. As I've mentioned, successfully executing on multiple growth projects across both domestic and international markets has been a priority. This has all contributed to a proven track record of through-the-cycle earnings growth. Moving to the next slide, this reinforces the breadth and scale of our operations, which includes 7,200 planted hectares of domestic farmland, 40 hectares of glasshouses, 108 growing hectares across three mushroom facilities, and two international berry growing locations. This footprint means Costa delivers 52-week supply of premium fresh produce to modern retailers. Our footprint today reflects in no small part the company's strategic expansion since IPO in July 2015. This has been undertaken to realize economies of scale, improve our protected cropping coverage, and establish access to premium high-growth international markets. I spoke earlier of the mushroom and tomato categories, which now operate under vertical farming, where we have invested capital in expanding our production capacity through a reduced cost base. In domestic berries, we have further focused on building our year-round offering, which now includes blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. We have also sought to mitigate and adapt to climate risk through increased use of protected cropping and substrate growing media. Across our trees and vines category, we have acquired quality citrus assets, which has not only expanded our production footprint, but also opened up further export markets in which to achieve premium pricing. Avocados became a vertically integrated category, and we are investing in more efficient growing techniques, which also provide productivity benefits with respect to labor. The international category has grown to include China and expansion within Morocco to more southerly growing regions. We've built on our third-party grower network in Africa, meaning Costa supplies the European market with blueberries year-round, consisting of those we grow directly and those third-party growers utilizing Costa genetics. This brings me to our next slide, which focuses on the evolution of our emerging regions, which encompass the licensing of Costa's own world-leading blueberry genetics across multiple regions and countries. This generates a royalty income stream, providing a high return on capital and directly improving NPAT-S. This is underpinned by Costa's variety improvement program, which is globally recognized, with Costa blueberry varieties licensed in regions including the Americas, Morocco, China and South Africa. The VIP program aims to breed and develop new varieties of blueberries of global commercial value each year. It utilizes Costa's extensive network of farms in mid-latitude, low latitude, and low chill to mid chill locations to select, evaluate and develop new varieties. This breeding program has contributed to the success of Costa's domestic and international operations, including in Far North Queensland, China and Morocco. A range of advanced selections are currently under evaluation and being planted in Australia, the U.S., Mexico, Morocco and China. Now moving to the segment performance, starting with international and where an outstanding China performance drove solid profit growth. China revenue was up 34% versus PCP, reflecting increased volumes, strong quality and demand, and higher pricing prior to some major city COVID lockdowns toward the end of the season. However, the easing of lockdown restrictions over June helped to minimize the full impact. In Morocco, volumes were 4% higher versus PCP. However, delayed timing due to weather resulted in a 16.2% revenue decline over the half versus PCP. The replanting program is progressing with the Mayra variety progressively replaced by Costa VIP purpose-bred premium genetic blueberry varieties. Strong growth traction of the berry VIP, driven by higher volumes and pricing in China, contributed to a 37% increase in emerging regions revenue versus PCP. In the produce segment, revenue growth outpaced volume growth across multiple categories, offsetting inflationary cost pressures and driving earnings. Starting with mushrooms, excellent production consistency from the Monarto facility drove overall category production + 7.3% versus PCP. Higher consistent volumes ensured increased earnings and the benefit from strong demand and pricing. In tomatoes, the first crop from Glasshouse Four and new nursery plants contributed to production consistency, resulting in a 38% increase in volume versus PCP. Positive pricing and demand were maintained in response to these additional volumes. In the domestic berry category, volumes were 10% up versus PCP, with pricing strong across the four berry types, especially premium blueberries. Raspberry and blackberry pricing were both strong versus PCP, which also benefited from lighter industry volumes. Strawberry volumes and pricing were also higher versus PCP. The citrus category saw great volumes improve significantly versus PCP, including the return of volumes from the Colignan crop. Early season citrus pricing was strong, especially for our premium citrus varieties. The inaugural first half trading from our 2PH acquisition contributed sales of AUD 21 million, with earnings contributions skewed to the second half. Finally, Costa and third-party avocado volumes were down versus PCP as expected. As expected, pricing over the half was impacted by a prolonged Western Australian crop and the lack of further export market access. The business has successfully integrated our 2PH acquisition into our trees and vines category, with all key management, operational and technical roles filled. Year-to-date volumes of 38,000 tons are tracking ahead of the business case. However, weather has impacted quality compared to last year. There has also been record pricing for premium fruit, although the benefit has been reduced due to the quality mix. We are expecting to export circa 75% of this year's 2PH Emerald crop while diversifying into other markets, including selling 2PH product into the Japan market for the first time by leveraging our pre-existing relationships. With respect to further 2PH plantings, there is the Conapaira, Conegans development, where we have the option to purchase stage one, 216 hectares, and stage two, 237 hectares, both of which have already been planted. The undoubted value and advantage of our proprietary blueberry varieties is best illustrated by pricing. In the first half CY 2022, the average premium blueberry sale price received by Costa increased by 40% versus PCP. As I mentioned, we have bred specific blueberry varieties to grow in tropical climates at low latitudes and low chill, most notably Far North Queensland. This year has seen the first significant volumes of our new premium Delight variety. The successful execution of Delight planting and harvesting in FNQ saw greater premium volumes versus the prior period over the April-June period. This period attracts higher pricing returns compared to the Jan-March period, ensuring maximized pricing for premium products. We have provided the profile of the current citrus tree maturity across our three growing regions with 45% of trees less than 8 years old. Noting that as an orange tree matures, it delivers higher yields. From this, we can also see the forecast volumes over the 2022-2024 period, with a forecast 17% increase in volume reflecting the increased yields that tree maturity will deliver. In the Costa Farms and Logistics segment, market trading performance and the Select Fresh Group acquisition contributed to profit growth ahead of revenue growth. Costa Farms saw a solid market trading performance with the Select Fresh business performing strongly. In logistics, a strong Eastern Creek DC contribution was offset by reduced volumes in other sites. I now hand over to our CFO, Wayne, to talk through the financial slides. Thank you, Sean, and good morning to everyone on today's call. Starting with the financial results, group revenue of AUD 708.7 million was 15.7% up on prior period. Our domestic produce segment reported a 17% improvement versus PCP, reflecting benefits from expanded production capacity in glasshouse four tomatoes and improved volumes from the Monarto mushroom facility. We also saw grape sales up after being impacted in the prior period by the Colignan hailstorm, and there was also additional revenue from citrus acquisitions such as 2PH that weren't in the prior period. The international segment saw the benefit of increased China production footprint and favorable prices. Although Moroccan volumes were up versus prior period, average pricing was impacted by weather conditions affecting production timing, and therefore recorded higher sales in the highly competitive periods. EBITDA increased by 12.6% versus prior. In produce, this was driven by growth in sales from the additional capacity I've already mentioned, improved production and market demand. There was also a concentration on tight cost management, despite inflationary pressures. On a negative note, avocado pricing continued to be under pressure. The international segment was underpinned by extra production area and favorable pricing in China despite COVID lockdowns towards the end of the season. Higher than expected Moroccan volumes versus pre-PCP were offset by the lower average pricing. Our underlying NPAT-S, pre SGARA increased by 10.8% versus prior year. In this presentation, we have included an underlying earnings analysis. This adjusts statutory NPAT for pro forma impacts of SGARA, material items, and first half comparisons to the prior year from the 2PH acquisition in July 2021 and the new Vitalharvest leases as of December 2021. We believe this provides a better insight into the half year results as it gives a like-for-like comparison with the prior year, particularly in relation to, as mentioned, the incremental impact of the additional depreciation and interest from the Vitalharvest leases and also the additional depreciation interest from the 2PH acquisition. It's important to note that 2PH EBITDA's earnings are heavily skewed to the second half, given the sales profile. Material items reported for the half were an avocado non-cash goodwill impairment. Sean spoke earlier to some of the challenges in this industry. Namely, what we've written off is the historical goodwill of AUD 2.2 million relating to the recent underperformance of this sector. This represents 100% of the goodwill we were carrying for avocados. In the appendices of this presentation on slide 36, we have provided guidance in relation to amounts below EBITDA. Increased interest costs over the prior year are largely due to the increased borrowing levels given the acquisitions made in CY 2021 and also base rate increases. D&A forecast of circa AUD 127 million is slightly below previous guidance, given lower expected CapEx across the period. We expect a blended tax rate of between 17%-19%. Individual country effective rates are provided on the slide. Moving to the cash flow. First half working capital outflow was AUD 36.2 million, which was above the prior year, given the expanded citrus portfolio from CY 2021 acquisitions and increased sales in other categories. Consistent with the prior year second half and years before that, we should see a strong cash inflow in the second half. Operating CapEx of AUD 28.8 million was in line with our expectations. Comparisons to prior year are also impacted by CY 2021 acquisitions, including incremental berry plant cost accounting. Growth CapEx for the half year included China expansion, avocado substrate trials, Glasshouse 4, and Agadir in southern Morocco. Asset sale proceeds includes AUD 3.4 million from the sale of our former Southeast Queensland mushroom facility, resulting in a small first-half earnings gain of AUD 0.2 million. On slide 36, we've also provided guidance for CapEx for the remainder of the full year. This being AUD 50 million for operating CapEx and AUD 40 million for growth CapEx. The total forecast of AUD 90 million is below previous guidance. Now, looking at the balance sheet for the half. The traditional seasonality of produce segment working capital build and the AUD 41.1 million invested in the first half is represented in the balance sheet. Citrus export cash receipts are heavily weighted towards second half. Net debt increased by AUD 28.9 million in the first half, largely related to the working capital investment and the higher cash position in the balance sheet mainly relates to the international segment and timing in relation to the management of local debt facilities. These businesses, being the international businesses, continue to have a strong cash generation and remain 100% self-funded growth. The capital employed comparisons of June 2021 are heavily influenced by the 2PH acquisition in July 2021, and also the new lease arrangements for the Vitalharvest properties that commenced in December 2021. Our capital management is supported by a strong capital structure and liquidity position, enabling the company to navigate the global COVID pandemic and also deliver on its current and future growth initiatives. Total leverage ratio of 1.94x was ahead of December 2021 due to the additional working capital investment relating to the acquisitions. However, this remains within our target range of 1.5x-2x. Our Australian syndicate debt facility was due to mature in the second half of calendar year 2023, but that has been successfully refinanced. Capacity has increased from AUD 450 million to AUD 650 million, with three to four and five-year maturity tranches. At balance date, unused debt capacity was AUD 190 million. As always, we appreciate the support of Costa from our banking syndicate members, enabled to expedite a very successful rollout of the new program. A strong balance sheet position and cash generation supports Costa's ability to pay dividends, with the first half dividend, interim dividend of AUD 0.04 per share to be paid. In relation to our capital strategy. Our capital strategy is to invest in capital to maintain business operating and safety standards while reducing, mitigating, and adapting to agricultural risks. Investment is focused on increasing shareholder value, and return on capital employed underpins a strong balance sheet and a steady dividend payout. The group targets a 15%+ return on capital employed over a five-year cycle. The final slide in my pack covers the long-term benefits from the revised lease arrangements of the previously owned Vitalharvest farms. We recall we announced the new arrangements in December last year, and given this is the first reporting period under the new regime, we felt it was important to reiterate the benefits and accounting impacts. The revised lease arrangement with Macquarie Asset Management is expected to provide value accretion over a medium to longer term. The leases cover seven farms, including three citrus farms and four berry farms, including farms in the Riverland and Corindi. The new leases commenced on the first of December 2021 and will expire in December 2040, with a 10-year option exercisable by Costa. CY 2022 is the first full year under these new arrangements. The new lease agreement is a fixed rent agreement. The prior lease agreement provided a variable component and a market rent review for the fixed component in 2026. Other benefits to the lease arrangement include long-term operating and rental certainty, incentives for Costa for investment in these assets, and expected cash benefits over the medium to longer term. The initial annual P&L impact is circa AUD 7 million post-tax relative to normal, to a normalized year, which is a year with consistent volumes and earnings from both berries and citrus. The circa AUD 7 million is heavily skewed to the first half due to traditionally all variable rent being recognized in the second half of each year. The initial lease cost is materially lower than the accounting expense. This now concludes my commentary on the financial slides, and I'll now hand back to Shaun to conclude the presentation. Thank you, Wayne. Given the current inflationary cost environment, it's important to provide some commentary on key input costs and how we are managing those. As many of you are aware, the Horticulture Award has been varied to introduce a minimum wage floor, taking effect from the end of April. There was also an increase to minimum award wages from the start of July, as per the annual Fair Work Commission decision. Our berry and trees and vines categories use piece rates, and we've been focused on ensuring they are utilized as effectively as possible to ensure ongoing productivity benefits. We also have other initiatives in place to drive improvements in labor productivity. Our engagement of seasonal workers who return to our business on a regular basis provides access to highly trained and productive workers. Our in-field proprietary IT harvest management system provides real-time analytics to our supervisors to manage the harvest labor cost pool, including harvest progress and productivity. On energy costs, we've benefited to date from fixed pricing agreements in place for the duration of CY 2022. With these costs expected to increase in the future, we have strategic relationships in place to hedge future positions. With respect to other input costs, transport and logistics represent 7% of our total cost base, and we've experienced increases across all areas of our supply chain. Shipping costs have begun to trend down versus peak pandemic levels, but remain at historic levels. Fertilizer and chemical costs have seen significant increases. Water pricing has come off its highs of previous years, and the forward outlook is positive. In summary, we will continue to apply our cost management and containment discipline and where we are able to leverage the scale we have to our benefit in the negotiation of procurement contracts. We will also manage any supply chain risk through our diversified supply base, and in addition, we are engaging in active, ongoing discussions with our retail customers. Concluding with the outlook. While CY 2022 is a citrus off-season, there have been positive volumes across the season to date, which is expected to continue through the second half. There's been favorable export demand and pricing. However, extreme weather conditions, including a prolonged La Niña period, have to date impacted quality, premium product pack out rates, and increased farming costs across all three growing regions. There remains significant overall volumes to be harvested in the southern region for the remainder of the season. The extent of the final impact of these conditions won't be known until much later in the season. 2PH has completed 80% of its crop as at mid-August, with results as foreshadowed, impacted by lower quality mix compared to CY 21. In domestic berry, the winter months saw cooler weather than average. However, the quality of early season protected blueberries is strong, including our premium fruit mix. This is expected to provide beneficial sales and pricing opportunities for premium domestic and export sales. Season volume forecasts are in line with expectations. Our pollination requirements continue to be met and successfully managed in response to New South Wales varroa mite incursion, including our ongoing access to beehives. Pleasingly, both mushroom and tomato are on a positive trajectory to perform favorably over the second half. We expect to continue to deliver consistent supply volume to our customers with good demand and pricing. Current pricing conditions in avocado are improving. However, industry conditions are expected to remain challenging for the remainder of CY 2022. There's a continuing export demand opportunity with WA products selling into the Japanese market and being well-received. Labor requirements are being met across all categories, and we expect this to continue over the second half. Finally, cost inflation is unlikely to moderate significantly in that second half. This concludes Costa Group's half-year CY 2022 results presentation. Detailed commentary on segment performance over the most recent period can be found in the appendices. Both Wayne and I now invite any questions on the presentation. Thank you. Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star then one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star then two. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. The first question today comes from Jason Palmer with Taylor Collison. Please go ahead. Yeah, thanks for your time, Sean and Wayne. Just a couple of questions from me. Just the first one in respect of the inflationary environment, in particular the produce segment. I mean, you've clearly done well from a volume and a price perspective across most categories, barring avocados. Are you able to sort of call out what you thought the inflationary impact of the business was during the first half, please? Thanks for coming on the call, Jason. That's actually really almost an impossible question to answer for us. I think that we've seen, and hopefully you've just heard it in the presentation, we've seen a range of inflationary cost increases, but they're very different by different areas of our cost base. I think your opening point's the key one. Overall, mostly, we've been able to grow our revenue to outpace the volume that we've had. Therefore, we think we've managed those inflationary costs pretty well. Okay. I guess I'm trying to digest that against sort of what's been delivered on the backdrop of a fairly challenging 1H 2021. Is there anything further you can kind of add to help us sort of bridge, you know, the type of inflationary pressures you've had? I really can't, Jason. Yeah, okay. All right. Just a second one, 'cause I'm sure there's others that wanna ask questions. Just in respect of the first half, I mean, you've called out those sort of headwinds in lease costs, and you've called out the 2PH earnings being heavily second half skewed. Mm-hmm. Are you able to sort of go into a little bit more detail on whether there actually was any earnings benefit at all from 2PH in the first half? I think in one of the slides, Jason, we actually do a pro forma of the underlying, and it does show a you know, a modest return from EBITDA. You know, as we've said, and you just pointed out, you know, it is heavily skewed. I think the important part to remember about 2PH is, there's obviously a very large farming operation. For the first four months of the year, we're in farming mode, so we don't start to see sales until, you know, till sort of late April, early May. Hence why the, you know, while when the sales come through in the second, predominantly second half is when the vast majority of the earnings come through. As I said, you'll see in the slides, there is a modest contribution from 2PH in the first half. Okay. All right. I'll jump back in the queue. Thanks for your time. Thanks, Jason. The next question comes from Michael Peet with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Oh, hi, Sean and Wayne. Maybe just further on that. Can you give us a sense maybe of how much sort of on the quality side of citrus, grade one versus other grades has been harvested to date in terms of versus maybe what it normally is? Yeah, sure. Thanks for coming on the call, Michael Peet. I guess, you know, as we've said previously, there's been, you know, very strong rainfall across all three regions. It's not as simple as just saying there's a lot of rainfall. It's actually also about the timing of it, which has been fairly problematic this year, undoubtedly. That's resulted in, as we've said, we've actually been hitting our overall total volume numbers. We've been pretty pleased with the yields that we're getting, particularly since it's a citrus off-season. However, that impact has been showing through in the quality mix, as you say, and the percentage that we're getting into what we call premium quality versus the lower grades. That's been significant, and I think we've called that out. We're probably anywhere in the range that varies by variety, varies by region, but probably we're about 7%-10% down at the moment in terms of the percentage of premium quality that we would normally expect. Just on 2PH, I mean, I think historically it made about AUD 29 million, but when you acquired it, is it significantly likely to be significantly below that this year? Well, you know, I know that you guys would love us to give you a more definitive forecast, but I guess what I can say is, although we've done 80% of the year, 20% still to go is a significant number that will have obviously a material impact on earnings. It's impossible for us to call that at this stage. Okay. I think we've been absolutely clear about the quality impact, though. No worries. A final question, just on labor costs. Are you able to quantify? We're looking at sort of way above wage CPI sort of inflation for labor costs for you. Just trying to get a sense with this new regime in place, what it means for you in terms of percentage increase in labor costs per head. What do you think wage CPI is at the moment, Michael? I think it's below CPI. That is as far as we can tell, but it's. Are you seeing more sort of headline CPI numbers around 5%+? Wage CPI seems to be below that. Yeah. I think we're in line with that. We'd be below that. Sorry, Sean, can you clarify that? Is it below the 5% or? Yeah. Well, I would say so, yes. Yeah. Great. Thank you. Thanks for your time. No worries. Thank you. The next question comes from Ben Gilbert with Jarden. Please go ahead. Morning, guys. Just a first question, just on mushrooms. I know your prices aren't directly linked to the wholesale markets and you're contracted, but I would've thought your mushroom It doesn't look like you got an enormous amount of price necessarily in mushrooms. If I look at wholesale pricing for the period, it looks like it was up well over 20% year-on-year. Can you just talk to that dynamic and what you're seeing in pricing of mushrooms as well? Yeah. Sure, Ben, and thanks for the question. Yeah, you're right. Like, you gave your opening comment, and it's correct. Our pricing is not dictated by the wholesale markets. We're the only mushroom producer that's got multiple sites, three sites, as you know, and therefore we enter into annual price contracts with our retail partners. I think that the overall headline that I'd say about the mushroom industry this year is that plainly, our competitors have struggled with a range of things. But what I'm hearing is primarily labor availability and have not been operating at full capacity. Those guys tend to mostly be selling into those wholesale markets, so the markets have been shorted quite a bit, and therefore those prices have been really elevated. What I would say from our point of view is we're happy with the retail pricing that we entered into, and we're currently renegotiating for the next year. Overall, I think we've delivered a good performance in mushrooms, actually, in line with our expectations, maybe even a little bit above. Presumably, the wholesale backdrop's gonna be helpful with your negotiations for next year. Oh, look, you know, we you know, we're talking daily, if not hourly sometimes with the big majors, the Woolworths and Coles and Aldi of this world, and I think they're very well aware, and we've clearly articulated the type of cost pressures that we're facing and everybody's facing. You know, I'm confident we'll arrive at a good outcome with them. At the end of the day, I think that the cost of business model has really proven itself out once again this year. We proved it out last year during you know, the heightened stages of the COVID pandemic. This year, a lot of people have been dealing with ongoing issues around labor availability in particular. Once again, we've shown the benefit of our scale, our ability to move people around where we need them to be and just keep consistently supplying. Great. Just second one from me. I think in the update you provided a month or a few weeks ago, I think you said 2PH was still tracking to budget or to your internal expectations at the time of acquisition. Just following on from Michael's question, has that changed? Because the other thing I suppose with citrus is my understanding is you guys are much more heavily skewed to the Riverland, as opposed to Sunraysia. Obviously 2PH is Queensland. The Riverland, my understanding was it hasn't been hit nearly as much by the quality issues. Right. You know, I wanna be really- Sorry, there's two questions there. I get it. I'm surprised it wasn't three, Ben, to be honest. I've got one more. We're being I believe very explicitly clear on this. 2PH overall volumes are tracking to, if not slightly above, the expectations and our original business case for the acquisition. There is, within that volume, there's been a mix shift because of quality issues. The quality issues have been mostly albedo in the Riverland and Sunraysia. The quality issues in Queensland, which is where 2PH is obviously, haven't really been albedo, but there's still been quite a lot of blemishing on the skin of the fruit, which means that they're not export grade-worthy, if you like. If I drop into the second part of your question about Riverland versus Sunraysia, yes, the albedo effect has been greater in Sunraysia across the industry, is our understanding and within our own farms from what we've seen to date. Both regions for us, though, I think, you know, you've heard me talk about this before. If we think about navel oranges in particular, there's differences between early season varieties, mid-season varieties, and late season varieties. We've just started the late season varieties, and we've got circa 50% of the crop to go down south. You know, those quality pack outs have improved a little bit. Absolutely, the overall commentary point of quality issues due to albedo still holds true. Okay. That's helpful. Then just finally for me, just on the tomatoes, just with the new glasshouse, and obviously there a while ago, but when do you think you've really started to sort of hit full stride in terms of the benefit of the new hectares and also some of the efficiencies that you've put in around, particularly around sort of increased mix towards snacking? Yeah. I think we've still got a way to go. Both production consistency, you know, we talked about this at the full year for last year, in that La Niña that we're in, obviously there's more rain. More rain comes from more clouds. As you guys saw when you came to Guyra, light conditions are really important for tomato growing, and there's almost a direct correlation between light and yield. So I think we've still been, well, we have been. We haven't been operating at the full production consistency that we ideally would've liked. So that means we're off the beat a little bit. I think also that if you think about the 2.5 hectare nursery that we've put in, the ongoing effects of that across the entire 40 hectares, we're still working up to optimizing that. There's really been very good progress, but I think there's still extra way to go. Long story short, no, I don't think we've hit our full run rate yet. All right. Thanks, Shaun. Appreciate it. Thanks, Ben. The next question comes from Larry Gandler with Credit Suisse. Please go ahead. Thanks. Hi, Sean and Wayne. I also wanted to ask a question about 2PH and citrus pricing. I think you guys reported about 39% growth in citrus pricing. I guess to some extent that is driven by mix shift towards 2PH in the first half, 'cause it didn't exist in the prior year. Should I expect that price growth to kinda moderate in the second half because it is more of a like for like comparison, and also we've got the southern fruit coming through? Larry, obviously, you know, the way you build your model is unique to you. I think I'm just gonna end up reiterating what we've said. There's definitely very strong pricing. Like, particularly, if you think about what 2PH was for us this year, this was the first year we were in full farming control of it from the beginning. We had a lot of, in particular, Chinese customers who were very keen to see that we could maintain the quality that 2PH had built up over many years. We really successfully did that. Like, we have delivered product into the Chinese market that's been very well received, and it's achieved pricing that has been a record to our knowledge, you know, over any preexisting year. From the aspect of execution on our quality standards, we absolutely did that. Fair to say though as well, there was less product going into the Chinese market, certainly than we would've wanted because of those quality impacts that we've talked about. Therefore, we've had to divert more fruit into second grade tiers, still very good quality tiers, by the way, but lower grade. Therefore, there's been less fruit overall. That obviously, as always in produce, influences pricing. Looking forward, like we've said, there's a lot of the season to go for 2PH and even more of it to go for the Riverland in South Australia. It's impossible for us to know what's gonna happen with pricing going forward. It's impossible for us to know what the quality mix will be going forward. We've just explained where we sit at the moment. Okay. That does help. I think there are some seasonal and comparable effects that I guess should moderate that price growth. We can take it offline to kind of work through that. Okay. The other question I did have, Sean and Wayne, was on the inflation cost base, and employee benefits expenses up 23%. Now, I know you've got the 2PH acquisition in there, so it's probably not like for like, but I don't know, Wayne, if you can kinda call out what you think that like for like growth was in that first half for that employee benefits expense. Yeah. I don't think I'll go to that level of detail, but I think it's fair to say that, yes, we have had additional labor, not just harvest labor, but also farming costs related to 2PH. We clearly also moved into, in the second quarter, the new regime on the piece rate. I think the company's actually managed it extremely well. We haven't seen any significant adverse impact related to. The impact of the new regime. You know, largely when it comes to it, you think about the increases year-over-year, it's predominantly around, you know, just prior year CPI plus the increased volumes coming from, you know, the acquisitions we made, not just 2PH, but also the farms in Sunraysia and clearly also we made a small acquisition in WA, so. Okay. Maybe the headcount in the organization, is that something that you guys have disclosed? Has it gone up? Do you know what the year-over-year increase has been? Oh, look, it's not a data point I have in front of me, Larry. Okay. Clearly, the headcount's gone up because we've actually acquired some really substantial businesses, so, yeah. Okay, great. All right, guys. Thanks. Thanks, Larry. The next question comes from Evan Karatzas. Please go ahead. Morning. I'm just on the cash flow through the second half. Can you maybe just touch on the confidence you have in collecting, improving that, you know, through that second half? Maybe just any color, I guess, on that collection improvement through the 2H please. Yeah. I think Evan, good morning. You know, we as I said in the slides, we traditionally always had a second half inflow, and that's reflected in the working capital build. If you even look at our balance sheet, the receivables are, you know, there's a fairly hefty receivable balance that needs to be collected. That's traditional that we have no concerns around credit and we'll be, you know, expecting pretty strong inflow in that second half. Yeah, we've given some guidance in relation to CapEx, and obviously we've got to declare a dividend. You know, we look at the working capital piece is something we have a fairly high degree of confidence in. Okay. Okay, great. That, that's helpful. Maybe. Sorry, apologies for just one more on the cost inflation. I mean, we're all sort of gonna have a stab at this, but maybe it'd be helpful if you could just put a number or percentage on, I guess, the net headwind from costs, if there even is any in the second half, maybe from any of wages, fertilizer, logistics, sort of et cetera. No, it's a point that Sean said earlier, it's almost impossible for us to give guidance on. Look, we've clearly seen some cost inflationary impacts come through. We've managed them well, but, you know, we're not at the point now to be able to give you know, guidance on that. Yep. Yep. Okay, that's fair enough. Thanks for your time. Thank you. The next question comes from James Ferrier with Wilsons. Please go ahead. Morning, Sean and Wayne. Thanks for your time. First question's on the produce segment and the grapes category in particular. Pleasing to hear volumes improvement and also on price as well. Is it fair to think about the contribution there as getting back to more normal levels after a really difficult PCP? Well, you know, I'm sure you remember. Sorry, James. Welcome onto the call, and thanks for the question. The New Year's Day hail storm at Colignan was significant for us, as we said. We've seen a rebound from that, which is great. I think the fair comment would be that there is still further that we would expect. It hasn't been 100% back to full growing capability. Those vines were impacted, and as you probably well know, it can take some time for them to regain their full vigor. I think we would anticipate that for next year. Okay. That's helpful. Maybe to put it into perspective against the whole of the produce segment, would that improvement from grapes have been the biggest contributor to earnings improvement year on year? Or was there something else in the segment that would've won that prize? I think if we think about vertical farming overall, I think that's probably been a really great performance from that team. You know, we've been very focused, as you know, on Monarto, for some time now, and that's definitely been executed really well. You know, the entire Glasshouse Four and the nursery, we've been very happy with that as well. Into a good demand backdrop. I think we've just managed to continually keep supplying while some of our competitors have not been that consistent. Yeah. Okay. No, that's good context. Thank you. Second question's for the international business. In second half 2021, we saw the size of the loss narrow versus PCP, and I think part of that was some of the sort of the early season volumes coming to market and the revenues sort of from the new season coming into the second half of the prior year. Is that trend gonna continue this year, do you think? Do you think the international segment gets close to breakeven in this calendar year, or is it still some way off given the seasonal timing? The latter will probably answer the second question first. We're still way off from having sufficient sales and volumes in the second half to offset the farming costs of both for China and Morocco. In relation to the second half impact, there'll be a slight improvement versus last year on the back of additional volumes, particularly in China in December, but not necessarily a material adjustment at this point. No, that's great. Thanks, Wayne. Last question for me. With respect to the outlook for the berries category, Sean, your comments there around volume and price and quality mix and the advantages of the scale and the protected cropping that Costa has, it all seems very positive. How's the seasonal timing impacting Corindi volumes between the first and the second half this year, do you think? Just in the context of that cooler, wet weather, are we likely to see a bit of a push for volumes at Corindi into the December half versus the June half relative to PCP? Yeah, I think that's very perceptive, James. That undoubtedly there's been absolutely horrendous weather in the Coffs Harbour region, which as you know, is the primary blueberry growing region in Australia. Those tunnels that we enjoy, and many of our competitors don't, have certainly proved their worth so far this year. The overall crop has been trending later, so because of all those impacts. Yes, I think your comment's fair. Okay. Thanks, Sean and Wayne. Thanks for your time. Thank you. The next question comes from Rod Gillies with Rimer Equity Research. Please go ahead. Oh, hi, Sean. Hi, Wayne. Thank you very much for taking my questions. Good to see Monarto and Glasshouse four coming through. That's terrific. Yep. I guess the first question is just on Morocco. I was just wondering if you could perhaps expand on what those weather conditions were that took place this year that caused that delay. Also, I guess I'm interested in the sort of longer term context, 'cause I'm pretty sure that that's now the third year out of the last four, where the season has been delayed, and you have had to compete with the Spanish production. I don't even quite know how to ask the question, but is there a risk that weather circumstances are permanently changed so that you're going to have a lot less frequency of being able to realize those high prices from Northern Morocco, I guess, is the question. Have you looked at that? That's the first question, so perhaps we can start there. Okay. Thanks for the question, Rod. Look, I think the answer, yes. I mean, yes, we think about it and yes, we've planned against it. If you remember, we divide Morocco for us into those northern farms that you talked about, but crucially also the southern region in Agadir. The reason we pushed down into that territory was to open up earlier season volume, earlier season yield, earlier season timing. That's the natural offset to the timing risk, I guess, on the northern farms pushing into the Spanish season. Essentially, the climatic conditions when you ask about what's determining the timing, it's really about nighttime temperatures getting to a level where the fruit can continue to ripen, and that just wasn't happening early in the year. You're right, that has happened before. I think from my memory, probably twice, I think, out of the last four years. It's not a complete disaster when it does happen because we still achieve a premium price to the market. But undoubtedly, if there's been a huge Spanish season and there's a lot of cheaper fruit, which it always is cheaper fruit flooding the market, then our premium is off a lower base, if you like. In a nutshell, what are we trying to do? We're trying to expand in the Agadir region. We're trying to, both there and in the northern region, have earlier season volume as much as we can. There are horticultural and agronomic techniques that we use to try and bring things in. The fact that they're under tunnels for a start creates a microclimate that's slightly warmer than what's around. Then, of course, underpinning it all, as you know, we have our VIP program where we're specifically breeding varieties both for that earlier timing, but also for that latitude. That, I think, is what's gonna continue to deliver our differentiation from our competitors and continue to underpin the earnings growth that we're expecting from that area. Sure. Okay. Can I just come on to avocados quickly? I understand the pricing is starting to improve and that it was a really, really good season in WA last year, and that affected prices, as did the pandemic. We do still have this situation of maturing trees within the industry. I note your comments in the press release with regard to, it'd be great if Japan opened up to the East Coast. In reality, is Japan an opening of the Japanese export market likely to be able to absorb a significant proportion of the new production that comes on over the next several years as trees continue to mature? Does something more structural have to happen in the industry, i.e., somebody has to be the first person to say, "Okay, we're gonna sacrifice some trees? It's a good question. Thanks. There's a bit to it. Let me start with what might happen with other industry participants. I think where a lot of the volume seems to have come from in the last couple of years, there's been a lot of small producers who converted, you know, almost micro holdings over to avocado trees, and the cumulative effect of that, I think, has been bigger than people expected. That's the first thing I'd say. Those people tend to be the last ones in and the first ones out when things get tough because, I guess, their personal balance sheets don't tend to stack up over the long term. You know, there's ongoing investment decisions that need to be made to keep bringing that avocado crop to bear. With retail prices sitting at the AUD 1 mark, then, you know, I think most of the industry is fairly underwater at that. That's one part of the equation. How material is Japan? Yeah, it's very material actually. I mean, we think that the Australian government should do much better overall in opening up all sorts of export markets. The reason Japan is critical is because it's a circa AUD 18 million trade market, where most other countries around it are either low single digits or maybe even high single digits. It kinda dwarfs its neighbors in terms of avocado consumption. Yes, it would be very material if we captured, we think 20% of that market is very realistic to be captured. Pulling that amount of volume out of the Australian domestic market would certainly rebalance things. We've seen this happen before. Table grapes is a great example if you go back in history and look at what happened with that market once export markets were opened up. I think that's part of it. Then the other part of it, of course, is we're already able to supply avocados from WA into Japan to the customers that we've been dealing with for over 15 years from a citrus point of view. We know, and we've tested this, and you know, we've had containers successfully arrive there last year and this year. We know there's a very strong demand for all the same reasons that Asian customers love Australia. It's the proximity, it's the freshness, it's the nutrition, it's the way that we farm these things. When those Australian avocados get into the Japanese market, they're really well received. I think it does stack up from all those points of view. The next question comes from Craig Woolford with MST Marquee. Please go ahead. Morning. Morning, Sean. Morning, Wayne. Just wanted to ask a question firstly on your debt exposure. Forgive me if you did talk about it in your verbal commentary on that slide, but, have you fixed any of your debt exposure, as at 31 December you hadn't? Yeah, we have a little bit of hedging in place. We don't traditionally have a significant hedging program at Costa, but there is some, you know, around sort of 10%-15% of the book is hedged to, you know, for any adverse movements from here. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. Maybe for you, Sean, just on the supermarkets are starting to talk about the value-conscious shopper coming back. I know through COVID, for obviously more health reasons, packaged fruit and veg became more of a preference than any of the loose fruit and veg. You know, are you seeing anything in terms of trading down behavior within categories? Do you know, do you see that as a risk over the next twelve months? Yeah, good question. Thanks, Craig. We put a slide in the deck actually, which addresses this point. We actually also ran a consumer survey very recently with about 500 respondents on it, which we've called out. I think, you know, when you look at the data there, I think absolutely the focus on price and value is heightened at the moment for many households. However, we would argue that there's also offsetting factors. Although food service sales are really strong at the moment, and I think actually Brad and Coles also said the same thing, that they're starting to see increased shopping in their stores. Consumers are starting to shop more in those retailers. That's one big offset. Then the other part, I think, is that, fresh produce overall, but certainly our categories within it, tend to be consumed by, more often and in greater quantities by, higher income households. They're the type of households that really value, what we bring to market, particularly the health and nutrition aspect of it. Of course, we're all feeling, heightened awareness of health and nutrition aspects at the moment. You know, it's impossible to compare one side to the other precisely, but we think there's enough, tailwinds coming into produce, particularly in retail, that will offset, a bit of this price consciousness that's been called out. Right. I mean, you might be able to give a number, but, like I know, say, mushrooms obviously moved to prepack, which, you know, A, Costa does a great job in, and B, typically gives a better price per kilo. You know, would you say over the last couple of years that it's been a meaningful contribution? I would rephrase the question as, has the mix towards prepack been a meaningful contribution to revenue? I think it's when you look back on the numbers, it's been a steady shift towards prepack. I think that is part of a broader trend, heightened obviously by the COVID pandemic, of consumers and households feeling more comfortable with packaged goods that couldn't have been handled in a retail environment. There's also, as you well know, the growth of e-commerce, and packaged produce lends itself to that type of channel, if you like. I think that they are the key drivers there. I think we continue to expect to see a percentage increase in prepackaged sales going forward. Yeah, you're right. We have certainly invested heavily in the packaging equipment that's required to deliver that type of product. Many of our competitors either don't have it or certainly don't have it at the scale that we do. I think increasingly over time, it becomes more of a competitive advantage or even a moat for us versus the industry. Got it. Last question. Just, you've got a line item in the P&L which is freight and cartage. How significant is the export, you know, I guess sea freight as a part of that? It was AUD 35.5 million in the first half of 2022. It'd be less than a quarter. Got it. Right. Thanks, Wayne. Thanks, Sean. Thanks, Craig. The next question comes from David Pobucky with Macquarie. Please go ahead. Sean and Wayne, I hope you're well. Thanks for taking my questions. Just a couple from me. Thinking about the full year, the first half, second half, EBITDA SKU last year was 57%-43%. Just trying to understand the moving parts between this year and last year, given you got the full contribution from 2PH this year and other factors as well. I mean, is that an appropriate guide for this year, or would you expect a more even SKU? We are well, David. Thank you, and hope you are too. As you well know, for us to do that effectively with you, we would be calling a forecast on the citrus season, which, in particular, the citrus season, right? We just can't do that. It's impossible to know at this stage. We've got over 50% of the year to go in the southern regions and still a very material amount of volume to go from 2PH. Also bearing in mind that there's always the lag of product arriving in export markets, given the transport time and then, you know, the pricing that's being received there. By the time you throw all that together, it's literally an impossibility to effectively forecast where that's gonna end up. Other big contributors for the second half, of course, as you know, it's already been referenced in this call, Northern New South Wales season, for blueberries in particular, and our own performance within that season. I think, you know, we've clearly said in the likes of vertical farming, we expect to continue doing what we've been doing so far this year, which is consistently produce into a strong demand and pricing environment. We've done the best we can to guide you and the market into what's actually happening in the business at the moment. Impossible for us to give you a more definitive view. Thanks, Sean. I appreciate that. If I could test your patience with another citrus question. I mean, in terms of the entire category, you know, appreciate it's second half weighted, but will, you know, almost all of the weighting fall into the second half of this year? I suppose the question is, you know, was there any EBITDA contribution in the first half? Yeah, there was some, yes. There was. Okay, great. Thank you. Best of luck for the rest of the year. Thanks, David. The next question comes from Richard Barwick with CLSA. Please go ahead. Good morning, guys. I wanted to ask back around the avocados, and you can obviously sense your frustration in sort of the commentary in terms of the, I guess the lack of speed or urgency coming from the government to sort out the export market. If we don't get that, and I appreciate your comments about the smaller producers and so on. Are we talking about the avocado market, you know, in many ways being structurally impaired? I know you've written off the small amount of goodwill that existed, but is there a risk, or do you see risk that you'll be writing off other assets or other asset write-downs associated with avocados into next year? Yeah, no. Thanks for the question, Richard. Look, I think the answer, number one is yes, you're right. You're sensing my frustration. In fact, all of the industry's frustration. I don't think there could be a simpler trade negotiation to complete given that the Japanese market already accepts our avocados from WA. So I really struggle to see why it has taken so many years, and we still actually don't have that deal done. So certainly you'll hear that from me unashamedly. I think, you know, we've taken that sort of non-cash, the goodwill impairment, and I think that's fair enough. What we've been doing as a team over the last few months, and we'll continue for the next couple in particular, is we've been reviewing each of our farms, our avocado farms, literally block by block. We've been digging very deeply into to understand in what type of pricing environment, given differences in yields and blocks, can this avocado business continue to thrive. You know, we'll be in a position, I believe, sort of in the late this year, to have a thorough discussion with our board about that. I guess what that means is, yes, we do. There is a risk here. Not every avocado block is created equally. I think that if there are structural issues with some of our avocado blocks, then, you know, we might need to make some decisions around what to do with that. We certainly believe the best outcome for everybody is that the Australian government solves this export equation. You know, that's the key determining factor, I think. Okay. A question on China. I mean, that was fantastic volume and outcome, therefore revenue outcome as well. How should we think about into next year, into FY 2023, just in terms of the profile and the way it would flow through from volumes? Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, you're so right. That it was such a challenging year on all sorts of fronts, and the team in China just did a really great job again. They're building such a competency in that market. Also, fair call-out to our partner, Driscoll's in China, who really managed the sales and marketing exceptionally well in a very challenging environment with lockdowns occurring all around them in major cities, as you know. I feel really good about the joint business that we've got in China. Whilst doing all of that, of course, we were also planting out and getting ready our 100 hectares in Agri Park. When we think about next year, next year will be the first harvest from that additional 100 hectares in Agri Park. I think that once you run your numbers on the hectares and the volumes, you'll get a pretty good steer yourself on what will happen in China next year, hopefully. Okay. The last one, just on the Varroa mite. I mean, you obviously referenced it in the text in saying that you're able to get the bees where they need to be or not? Yeah. Because in effect, you're not being impacted at this point. Can you just give us some context, you know, and what's the worst-case scenario here? If this Varroa mite situation, you know, is not contained and becomes a widespread issue in Australia, Yeah. What does that mean for Costa? Yep. Look, I think the first thing is to understand is Varroa mite is endemic, basically throughout the world. What that means when it becomes endemic is that, you know, the beekeepers themselves face higher costs in terms of managing that and still being able to fulfill pollination requirements, which they successfully do elsewhere throughout the world. Pollination costs are not a huge, I wouldn't even say, I don't think even a material part of our cost base. I think the, if you like, the worst case scenario is an endemic population of Varroa mite, but actually for us, it means, you know, a cost uptick in a fairly insignificant part of the business. The actual biggest risk has been really this stage that we're going through right now, where the DPI, New South Wales DPI, is attempting to stop it from becoming that endemic outbreak, and therefore putting in restrictions in terms of zones where high-risk hives are restricted on movement. That's where, you know, it's a huge call-out to our team. Once again, though, also as well, the benefits of scale. Because of the size of what we do in Corindi, we keep all our hives on that farm all through the year. When we were in the planning, you know, the response planning for the Varroa mite incursion, we were able to quickly engage with local officials and agree that we could move those hives around on our farms to fulfill all of our pollination requirements. You know, you never say never, right? But I think we've managed through, hopefully, the worst of it to date, and really from going on from here, I think we're well-positioned no matter what happens. The next question comes from John Campbell with Jefferies. Please go ahead. Hey, Sean and Wayne. Thanks for taking my questions. Just a couple quick ones. Just trying to summarize what you've been saying around export of avocados to Japan. Would it be a fair assumption to think that there won't be any East Coast avocados going into Japan before calendar 2024? Hi, John. First of all, thanks for the question. I would be just really disappointed if that's the way it plays out. We have an industry body that we started called the AFPA, Australian Fresh Produce Alliance. It's got 14 of the biggest companies in produce in Australia, and we together are about 50% of the revenue of the industry. Slightly long-winded way of getting to your answer. The AFPA has been strongly lobbying in this space now for quite some time, and we're actually holding our own trade delegation with Japan, in Japan, in the latter part of this year. We're strongly encouraging and hoping to get as many of the Australian ministers along, to come along with us. We already have set up. As I said before, we've been dealing with Japanese customers for over 15 years, so we have quite a lot of them that are gonna be there as well, and they'll be expressing in no uncertain terms their requirement for Australian East Coast avocados. We're doing everything we possibly can in this space, and I would be more optimistic than the timeline you've outlined, but with a sense of frustration, I have to acknowledge it's not completely in my control. It's not actually in my control at all, really. Yeah. Okay. That's terrific. Thanks for that. Just two others. Just with rising energy prices, which you've obviously sort of called out, probably won't be impactful in calendar 2022 materially, with fixed price contracts, et cetera. You know, presumably rising energy prices, you're better placed than pretty much anyone in the industry to cope with them. Eventually they find their way into output pricing. Just give us a sense, and I don't know if you've disclosed this before, around your sort of total energy annual energy costs, sort of gas and electricity. Can you give us a sense of that? Yeah. We've never disclosed it. It's not in the top 10 cost buckets for us. It is, you know, but your comments at the beginning of your question are correct. We have managed, I think, that exposure very well through a very sophisticated and I think well managed hedging program using external consultants. Those programs do expose us to a renewal. We have some challenges next year, but yeah, I'd probably leave it at that. Yeah. Okay. Thanks, Sean. Last question from me. I know some operators are still being plagued by labor availability issues, and I think the larger scale players like Costa, et cetera, and a few others have done pretty well. You seem to be calling out that labor availability issues, while they're not, you know, 100% behind you in terms of impact going forward, starting to really ameliorate and not that impactful going forward. Is that a fair summation? It's probably not exactly the way I'd put it, John, so let me have a crack at it the way that we think about it. We, you know, a few years ago, to be honest, we determined that we wanted to have more and more direct control of the employees that we needed for the critical sort of seasonal harvest work. We've been engaged around strategies to do that over time. Those things have built and plainly, you know, with COVID, that turned out to be quite a prescient sort of way of looking at it. At the same time, you know, I just have to keep congratulating my team right across the country and overseas that they manage these shortened labor conditions really well. We've been good at that. We've benefited, as we said, by the scale, particularly within Australia. The ability to move people around the country from one region to another has been really important with this as well. For all those factors, we believe that we should be able to continue to successfully manage that labor force going forward, almost regardless of what's happening in the more macro environment. Great. Thanks, Sean. Are you giving much consideration to sort of more automation around picking and packing? I know there's that would require significant capital investment, but is that something under consideration? Oh, it's beyond consideration. We have some exciting initiatives that are in, let's say, pilot phases. We've been working on it for a while now. We're not at a point yet where we can come to the market about it. Certainly that's a really important area going forward. Great. Thanks for that, Sean. Congratulations on a credible result in what was obviously a very challenging period. I'll say thank you on behalf of the whole team for that one. Thank you. This concludes our question and answer session, and also concludes the conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.