A projected increase in New Zealand gold kiwifruit volumes over the coming seasons has convinced one of the country’s leading post harvest operators to invest NZ$12m (US$8m) in developing its facilities, according to the Bay of Plenty Times.
Trevelyan's Pack & Cool will spend NZ$3m (US$2m) on the installation of a new nine-lane optical sorting solution, with the fit-out to be handled by New Zealand-based firm Compac. A brand new 43602m packhouse and two 13002mcoolstores are also being constructed at Trevelyan's 20ha site in Te Puke, with the company hoping for the new infrastructure to be online by the start of the season in March.
'Our breakdown is about 35 per cent gold and 65 per cent green,' Trevelyan's general manager, Steve Butler, told the Bay of Plenty Times. 'The sold share is growing as the G3 (marketed as SunGold) comes on and we get more mature vines. It's another big jump this year for everyone. The industry is pretty buoyant at the moment and the five-year outlook is pretty good for the industry.'
Trevelyan's expects to pack over 14m trays of kiwifruit this season, up from 12m last season, while more than 400,000 trays of avocados are also expected to be handled by the company.
