The vessel Kowhai, named by Zespri in 2020, carries 700,000 trays - around 2500 tonnes of Zespri SunGold Kiwifruit and15 containers of Zespri RubyRed for customers in China.
The Kowhai, and the season’s second charter the Solent Star, are expected to reach Shanghai at the end of March.
It is the first of 63 charter vessels Zespri expects to use this season to ship around half the expected 193 million trays - or almost 695,000 tonnes, of Green, SunGold and RubyRed Kiwifruit - to more than 50 countries.
That’s up from the 51 charter vessels used last season.
The benefits of charter ships are they carry more fruit and provide more certainty by sailing straight to market without calling on other ports en route.
This season’s charter programme uses refrigerated reefer vessels with fruit stored in holds in the body of the ship.
It will include three services to Northern Europe, 14 to the Mediterranean, four to North America’s West Coast and 42 to Asia, with the remaining volume to be shipped using container services.
Zespri chief operating officer Jason Te Brake said after a positive growing season, the sight of the first charter setting sail for 2024 was always an exciting moment for the industry.
“With the first charter shipment now on its way, there’s a lot of excitement about the season ahead and we look forward to seeing both charter and container ships continue to set sail from the Port of Tauranga to our more than 50 markets including Europe, China, Japan and others over the coming weeks and months.”
Te Brake said Zespri remained confident it could “deliver the season well,” despite being behind schedule because “the weather hasn’t entirely played ball”.
Zespri continued to monitor the global shipping environment and remained confident in its ability to deliver this season’s crop, through its charter and container services programme, Te Brake said.
