Chartered ships for kiwifruit

Press, 21 April 1986, Page 13

Chartered ships for kiwifruit

PA Tauranga More than half of this season’s export kiwifruit crop will be sent overseas in chartered conventional ships, saving about $lB million for the industry. About 16.5 million trays of kiwifruit are expected to be exported in 25 chartered ships, carrying only fruit, while the rest of the crop will go in container ships. Last year slightly less than 30 per cent of the 23.5 million-tray export crop went in nine chartered ships, said Mr Richmond Harding, a representative of the Kiwifruit Exporters’ Association operations committee

in Tauranga. “The first of the chartered ships will be loading at Tauranga, Gisborne and Nelson in the first week of May,” he said.

“There will be varying amounts, but mostly small quantities, going before those in container ships.”

The money saved by using chartered shipping had been made possible by combining exporters’ resources, he said.

The use of local ports for loading charterd ships meant significant savings to growers in the cost of getting their kiwifruit to the ships, he said.