NEW ZEALAND kiwifruit marketer Zespri has despatched its first chartered reefer ship of the season, from Tauranga to Japan and South Korea, with around 60 more shipments to follow carrying what’s predicted to be a record crop.
Coincidentally, Zespri’s well-known and long-serving strategic shipping relationships manager Mike Knowles has announced he will be stepping down later this year.
Fresh Carriers’ 13,014 GT, 2021-built Whero (Māori for red) left Tauranga on Saturday [14 March] for Tokyo, loaded with more than 775,000 trays, or 2,790 tonnes, of Zespri SunGold kiwifruit, as well as 1.5 million trays, or 5400 tonnes, of Zespri RubyRed.
The ship is expected to arrive in Tokyo at the end of the month before calling Kobe and then Busan. The second charter, Whero’s sistership Kowhai, is currently loading in Tauranga and due to depart tomorrow for Shanghai. The third, Koru, is due to load next week for Tokyo.
Zespri anticipates a total 2026 crop of 792,000 tonnes of Zespri Green, SunGold and RubyRed kiwifruit will be shipped to more than 50 markets around the world.
Charter vessels allow Zespri to carry more fruit and provide greater certainty by sailing directly to market without calling on other ports enroute, with remaining volume shipped using container services, the company believes.
CMA CGM is the principal carrier of containerised kiwifruit, via its PAD service to east coast North America and Europe, but Zespri also takes charters to Europe with Crown Ruby listed to load in Tauranga next week for Zeebrugge.
Chief executive Jason Te Brake said the departure of the first charter was always a “milestone moment for the industry”.
“There’s always a lot of pride in getting our first ship away and Whero’s departure marks an important step in the work we’ll do this season to deliver another large crop of high quality Zespri Kiwifruit to our markets.
“Recent global developments highlight that we’re operating in an increasingly complex and unpredictable environment.
“While Zespri continues to use the Panama Canal for shipping to Europe, we are closely monitoring the evolving situation and the impact on oil prices to manage the impact as well as we can for growers and shareholders,” Mr Te Brake said.
“Each season we work closely with our long-standing shipping partners to get our fruit to market and we remain confident in our shipping plan which uses a mix of container and charter vessels.
“We’re working with our partners to have appropriate contingencies in place to respond to what we expect will remain an uncertain environment, to ensure we’re positioned to deliver the season well,” he said.
Meanwhile Mike Knowles, who has been with Zespri since 1993 and has served since 2001 as shipping manager or strategic shipping relationship manager, announced late last week that he will retire later this year after 37 years in the kiwifruit industry.
Mr Knowles was also the Zespri International representative on the New Zealand Cargo Owners Council (NZCOC, formerly NZ Shippers Council). He held the position of chair of the NZCOC from 2013 to August 2018 and again from 2024 to 2025.