NZ Kiwifruit packing company expands to meet demand for Gold variety
Punchbowl executive chairman Rob Craig has been involved in the company for more than 35 years and according to him the new Gold3 variety, which is leased by Zespri, was 25 per cent more productive than the old gold Hort16A variety which was wiped out by PSA back in 2011.
"Our volume is just continually increasing and so we're now at a stage where we need to expand our coolstores and expand our fruit packing capability in the packhouse," Craig said.
Punchbowl was estimated to produce 2.3 million trays this year and expected to increase its volume over the next four years. Punchbowl's new packhouse technology was made and tested by French fruit and vegetable handling equipment manufacturers, MAF Roda.
The success comes at a time when Chile's kiwifruit industry is in disarray, Craig explained, saying, "Their kiwifruit industry is in disarray, vines are coming out of the ground and they're losing money. New Zealand is the only industry really booming at kiwifruit at the moment."
source: stuff.co.nz
