Zespri's first charter shipment of the 2025 New Zealand kiwifruit season has set sail from Tauranga bound for Shanghai. The vessel Kowhai—named by Zespri in 2020—was carrying 1.2 million trays, or around 5,400 tonnes, of Zespri SunGold Kiwifruit and 16 containers of Zespri RubyRed Kiwifruit for customers in China.

The Kowhai was due to reach Shanghai at the end of March. Zespri's second charter of the season - the Oriental Iris - also departed last week, bound for Tokyo as the season gets into full swing.

These are the first of 61 charter vessels Zespri will use this season to ship its largest-ever expected crop from New Zealand, 200 million trays, or 720,000 tonnes of Zespri Green, SunGold, and RubyRed Kiwifruit, to more than 50 markets around the world.

Zespri's charter programme uses specialised reefer vessels. These allow the kiwifruit marketer to carry more fruit and provide more certainty by sailing straight to the market without calling on other ports en route.

Zespri CEO Jason Te Brake says the departure of Zespri's first charter shipment is an exciting time for the industry.

"The season is off to a positive start, and there's always a buzz around the industry when our first charters depart.

"It's pleasing to see such a strong level of confidence within the industry - customers and consumers want more of our fruit, which is helping us secure good value for growers. We've reached some significant milestones, including taking our fruit to more than 100 million households, and there have been favourable conditions for growing and harvesting this season's crop.

"We focus on maintaining this momentum and completing a successful harvest, ensuring we provide high-quality fruit throughout the season. Mr Te Brake says that the industry's comprehensive pre-season planning process with growers and post-harvesters focused on a good early start to the sales season.

"Our sales and marketing teams in the market have been working closely with our partners to ensure that we've got another year of strong marketing campaigns, with many featuring our iconic KiwiBrothers, and we're looking forward to rolling these out across the year ahead."

Charter shipments this season will include three services to Northern Europe, 14 to the Mediterranean, one to North America's West Coast, and 43 to A. The remaining volumes will be shipped using container services.

Also, Whero was loaded last weekend at the Gisborne wharf and headed for Asia.

The Whero, a specialised reefer ship measuring 158 meters in length and 25 meters in width, sails under the flag of Panama. It spent a day or two anchored in Tūranganui-a-Kiwa/Poverty Bay before ending its loading on Saturday. The ship took 980 pallets of kiwifruit bound for Shanghai and then set sail from Gisborne to complete its load in Tauranga.

The Whero was the first of five kiwifruit ships scheduled to visit the New Zealand port this season. The Kakariki is expected to dock on March 21, followed by the Wild Cosmos on March 27. A shipping agent has indicated that two additional kiwifruit shipments are planned for mid- and late April, with a possibility of scheduling a sixth shipment.

Zespri is 100 per cent owned by current and former kiwifruit growers and has a global team of 900+ based in Mount Maunganui and throughout Asia, Europe and the Americas.

Our purpose is to help people, communities, and the environment thrive through the goodness of Kiwi. Wend, we work with 2,800 growers in New Zealand and 1,500 growers offshore to provide consumers with fresh, healthy and great-tasting Zespri Green, Zespri RubyRed and SunGold Kiwifruit. In 2023/24, we supplied 164.2 million trays of kiwifruit to consumers in more than 50 markets and recorded global operating revenue of NZ$4.21 billion.

Zespri is committed to sustainability, with areas of improvement identified right through the supply chain, including our pledge that by 2025, we will use 100 per cent reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging, do more to help the environment, and work with our partners to be carbon positive by 2035.