Te Puke-based post-harvest company Trevelyan's Pack and Cool is building $3.5 million worth of new coolstore space to handle its share of a record kiwifruit crop from orchardists who are beginning to put the worst of the Psa crisis behind them.
Trevelyan's packed 8.1 million trays of kiwifruit this year and expects to pack 10.5 million trays in 2015. The company is forecasting handling 12.9 million trays in 2016 - with the bulk of that growth coming from new Gold3 (G3) kiwifruit production.
"I think we are so fortunate to have this capacity problem to solve now," said managing director James Trevelyan.
"Going back four years we didn't know what was ahead of us. We're in a volume business and it's been tough times, but we haven't laid anyone off. For the team, there's a real sense of relief and more certainty."
The company has 26 coolstores on its 20ha site on No 1 Rd, Te Puke, but is building another three new state-of-the-art coolstores and extending three more to cope with booming Gold3 production.