NEW ZEALAND - The New Zealand kiwifruit season is officially underway! Zespri™ has announced that its first shipment of the 2023 season departed the Port of Tauranga with more than 600,000 trays of Zespri SunGold Kiwifruit in tow and on its way to Japan. The first of 53 charter vessels to be optimized this season, The Southampton Star is expected to reach Tokyo in early April before sailing onto Kobe.

“Demand for our fruit remains strong, and with this season’s harvest ramping up over the coming weeks, we’ll soon move into mainpack, where the bulk of our fruit is harvested,” said Acting Chief Global Supply Officer Jason Te Brake. “It’s a proud moment seeing the first ship taking our fruit to customers and consumers, but especially this year given it’s been such a challenging start to the year for some of our growers.”

Zespri’s charter fleet will aid the supplier in delivering approximately 145 million trays of Green, SunGold, and RubyRed™ Kiwifruit to more than 50 countries, a press release explained, with this season’s program including three services to Northern Europe, seven to the Mediterranean, two to North America’s West Coast, and 41 to Asia.

“The industry’s Quality Action Plan was launched in October last year and has seen significant collaboration throughout the entire industry to ensure we deliver great-quality fruit for our customers and consumers in the 2023 season, as well as in the years ahead,” he said. “That starts with ensuring that we’re doing everything we can to have a great harvest and looking after the fruit throughout the supply chain. There’s already been some great work undertaken across the industry as part of the Quality Action Plan, and that will continue to be our focus as harvest continues over the coming months.”

Te Brake continued, noting how Zespri optimizes its shipping program to ensure it can deliver consistently good-quality fruit to consumers in offshore markets.

“While COVID-19 caused significant shipping disruption in recent years, we’re expecting a more stable shipping environment this season, with better transit times delivering fruit to markets,” Te Brake said. “With our first charter vessel now on the way to market, we’re looking forward to our shipping program ramping up in the weeks ahead and continuing to work with our shipping partners to provide consistently high-quality Zespri Kiwifruit for our customers and consumers to enjoy this season.”

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