20% More Kiwifruit Pallets Loaded

October 4, 2004

20% More Kiwifruit Pallets Loaded During 2004 Season

International Stevedoring Operations (ISO) has smashed its kiwifruit pallet loading record again this year – and there’s still two months of the season to go.

At its home Port of Tauranga, ISO today loaded the 200,000th kiwifruit pallet of the season onboard Polar Stream bound for Belgium. This year’s loadings are already up by more than 13,000 on last year’s record season, with another four ships expected in port over the next eight weeks.

Under its contract to Tauranga Kiwifruit Logistics (TKL), ISO loads 90 per cent of the total kiwifruit export crop shipped out of Tauranga on vessels chartered by Zespri.

TKL chairman Murray Gough says managing the record season has been helped by consistent rapid turnaround of vessels by ISO.

“Maintaining vessel load rates and stow quality are key to the efficient shipping of kiwifruit. This is the eighth season we have worked with ISO and we clearly value both their commitment and experience.”

ISO North Island stevedoring manager David Proudfoot anticipates 40,000 more pallets will be loaded this season than last.

“We have loaded the 200,000 pallets – equating to 50 million trays - onboard 52 vessels at Port of Tauranga this year, meaning the season has been longer and more consistent than others. But it’s still not over yet and we expect to load at least another 20,000 trays this year.”

ISO first began working with TKL in 1997. That year 149,855 pallets were loaded and the number has continuously increased each season since.

“Even though our staff has become very experienced loading kiwifruit over the past eight seasons we still seem find ways to make the loadings work better.”

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