As of November, the final shipments of 2020's New Zealand-grown kiwifruit have left the Port of Tauranga, bound for Asia. The 3000 tonnes of green kiwifruit is headed for Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, and China. Zespri, the world's largest marketer of kiwifruit based in New Zealand, chartered 49 vessels and used almost 18,000 refrigerated containers to get around 157 million class one trays of Zespri SunGold, Green, and Zespri Red Kiwifruit to more than 50 countries. It had been a challenging season because of the global impact of Covid 19, but it had been able to continue to operate. Zespri was now transitioning to fruit from its Northern Hemisphere growing partners for Italy, France, Korea, and Japan, which helped ensure consumers could buy Zespri Kiwifruit for 12 months of the year. Zespri chief officer said it sourced about 22 million trays from the Northern Hemisphere, compared with the 170 million trays of fruit grown in New Zealand.
Source: