Ōpōtiki grower wins 2025 Kiwifruit Innovation Award
Brett Wotton, an Eastern Bay of Plenty kiwifruit grower and harvest contractor, has won the 2025 Kiwifruit Innovation Award for his work to support lifting fruit quality across the industry.
Zespri’s first charter shipment of 2024 season kiwifruit in on its way to Shanghai.
The vessel Kowhai – which was named by Zespri in 2020 – departed Tauranga Port, carrying 700,000 trays, or around 2,500 tonnes of Zespri SunGold Kiwifruit, as well as 15 containers of Zespri RubyRed for customers in China.
Both 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 of 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 is 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 using refrigerated reefer vessels with fruit stored in holds in the body of the ship 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 says after a positive growing season, the sight of the first charter setting sail for 2024 is always an exciting moment for the industry.
“Every season we look forward to our shipping programme getting underway and delivering our Zespri kiwifruit to our markets around the world and that’s especially true with such a big crop expected this year.
“We’ve put a lot of focus on our season planning and how we manage this season’s increase in crop volume in a way that will allow the industry to deliver consistently good quality fruit to our customers and consumers throughout the season.
“A key part of this is starting our season strongly and getting a good source of fruit to our customers so that we can capitalise on early sales opportunities and the strong consumer demand for our fruit, with our shipping programme and our longstanding partners playing a critical role. The weather hasn’t entirely played ball and we’re a bit behind schedule but are confident we can deliver the season well.
"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 says Zespri is continuing to monitor the global shipping environment and remains confident in its ability to deliver this season’s crop, through its charter and container services programme.
All eyes are on milk production in New Zealand and its impact on global dairy prices in the coming months.
Claims that some Southland farmers were invoiced up to $4000 for winter grazing compliance checks despite not breaching rules are being rejected by Environment Southland.
According to the most recent Rabobank Rural Confidence Survey, farmer confidence has inched higher, reaching its second highest reading in the last decade.
From 1 October, new livestock movement restrictions will be introduced in parts of Central Otago dealing with infected possums spreading bovine TB to livestock.
Phoebe Scherer, a technical manager from the Bay of Plenty, has won the 2025 Young Grower of the Year national title.
The Fencing Contractors Association of New Zealand (FCANZ) celebrated the best of the best at the 2025 Fencing Industry Awards, providing the opportunity to honour both rising talent and industry stalwarts.
OPINION: For years, the ironically named Dr Mike Joy has used his position at Victoria University to wage an activist-style…
OPINION: A mate of yours truly has had an absolute gutsful of the activist group SAFE.