THE last Zespri charter vessel of the season has departed the Port of Tauranga bound for Japan.

Zespri chief executive Jason Te Brake said about 4610 tonnes of Zespri Green kiwifruit weree aboard Lady Rosehip, which was expected to reach Tokyo at the start of November before sailing onto Kobe.

Zespri has used 62 charter vessels to ship this season’s kiwifruit from New Zealand, including three to Northern Europe, 13 to the Mediterranean, three to North America’s West Coast and 43 to Asia.

That’s up from 51 charter vessels last season.

The season’s final container shipments carrying the remaining 4400 tonnes of the crop is also expected to conclude in the coming weeks.

Mr Te Brake said there had been significant effort from the industry this season to deliver a record crop of more than 190 million trays – 684,000 tonnes – to more than 50 markets around the world.

“Fruit quality this season has been some of the best we’ve seen in the past five years and we’ve been hearing great feedback from our customers in market,” he said,

“The New Zealand sales season is expected to wrap up for SunGold in Europe at the end of this week, while Green will run through to the end of November, and the season will finish up in late November or early December in Asia.

“Our sales and marketing teams are focused on maintaining strong sales rates to ensure we close the season well and deliver the best possible result to our growers.”

Mr Te Brake said Europe markets had been performing really strongly with France a particular standout, along with strong sales in Germany, Spain and the Netherlands.

“In the United States, we continue to be the number one kiwifruit brand driven by strong SunGold performance,” he said.

“In Asia, it’s been a huge season in Greater China with volume up 40 percent on last year and we continue to buck the trend in fresh produce with both value and volume up year-on-year. In difficult market conditions, sales have also been tracking well in Japan and Korea.”

Mr Te Brake said planning for 2025 was ramping up with preparation again involving representatives from Zespri, post-harvest and NZKGI.

“While it’s still early at this stage, we’re planning for a more moderate increase in crop volume from New Zealand next year,” he said.