New kiwifruit shipping service from Northport to take trucks off road

Alan and Helen Thompson, in their Kerikeri packhouse, will save significantly in transport costs as a result of a new shipping service. Photo / Peter de Graaf

A new shipping service for Northland's $40 million kiwifruit industry will take more than 500 truck and trailers trips off the road south of Whangarei and increase profits for the region's growers.

From May this year, Northland's kiwifruit will be able to travel directly to Singapore from Northland, via a new service being trialled out of Northport, at Marsden Pt, by the Mediterranean Shipping Company.

The Geneva-based company has announced its container vessels will stop at Northport to load Zespri kiwifruit and other locally grown produce every fortnight. The new service is called "Kiwi Express" in a nod to its major target crop.

Northland produces around three and a half million trays of kiwifruit a year, which equates to about 13,000 pallets and is worth around $40 million. The volume of trays is expected to double in the next three years.

Kerikeri-based grower, coolstore and packhouse operator Alan Thompson is thrilled with the announcement.

"It's a major step forward for the growers up here. It's better for the fruit and it's better for us."

He said the Marsden Pt option would significantly lower his transport costs. Currently kiwifruit is trucked from Kerikeri to Auckland, before being loaded onto rail and taken to the Port of Tauranga to be distributed overseas.

Mr Thompson said the cost to get one pallet of kiwifruit from Kerikeri to the Bay of Plenty is about $102. To load that same pallet at Marsden Point is expected to cost about $36, a saving of $66.

The service will reduce the number of trucks heading south of Marsden Point.

As it stands, 3.5 million trays equates to about 520 truck and trailer units heading south of Whangarei annually. As volumes increase over the next three years, that figure would climb to 850 a year.

Mr Thompson also expected the new service would be better for the produce.

"We hope it's good for the fruit - not sitting in a truck for 12 hours, which can happen."

Mr Thompson said a regular shipment from Whangarei is something the industry has been trying to get going for 18 to 20 years. In the past, a charter vessel has stopped sporadically, but a regular service allows packhouses to plan better.

"Everything will be a lot smoother."

Zespri and MSC are finalising details of the trial which will start in May and initially run until the end of the kiwifruit season in late August.

Zespri will deliver reefer containers full of kiwifruit to the MSC ship every two weeks to be shipped directly to Singapore, to be sold around the world. It is hoped the service will become permanent in 2019.