A 16 piece live Jazz band trumpeted the opening of Kea Fruit LP on Friday 11th February.
Kea Fruit LP is a conglomeration of 7 growers and exporters coming together to pack New Zealand apples for the world.
The Kea group has over 100 years joint experience in the fresh produce industry, so it already has many long standing relationships.
"We all came together, as we see a great opportunity to promote our own growers' fruit, in a unifying brand," said Kea Director, Phil Bird. "We are elated to finish the packhouse on time and ready to pack fruit this week for our clients. This again shows NZ growers' desire to continually improve the pack quality and deliver better apples each season."
The packhouse has a state of the art Compac defect sorter, with 41 drops, to allow many packing options.
"We will pack a premium carton. Already we have great feedback on trial shipments of Kea Apples in 2021. Our first variety to be packed this week is Royal Gala. Then we will follow with NZ Queen, Fuji, Granny Smith, Braeburn, NZ Rose and Pink Lady. Our joint partnership will be able to work to all our strengths, and pack/ship 450,000 cartons of apples in our first year."
“We have plans to expand these volumes quickly over the coming seasons,” said Anton Masutti, Kea Director. "We are proud of our Kea branded carton, showing the native NZ Bird, the Kea, soaring to great heights just like Kea LP will do!"
For more information:
Richard Burns
Kea Fruit
[email protected]
Tel: +64 6 8243333
Mob: +64 275 845465