The long hot summer has helped produce great tasting New Zealand kiwifruit, the first shipment of which sets sail from the Port of Tauranga today.

The first of 55 chartered refrigerated ships for the season, the Atlantic Erica, loading up with Zespri Kiwifruit in the Port of Tauranga on Saturday. Photos: supplied.

The MV Atlantic Erica carries gold fruit to thelong-standing premium market of Japan and marks the beginning of the season in which close to 108 million trays of green and gold Zespri kiwifruit will be exported.

Zespri CEO Lain Jager says the long hot summer, with just enough rain, means the new variety SunGold should be even better tasting than last year and the green Hayward fruit should also taste great.

That's exactly what the marketer wants. 'Great tasting fruit drives repeat purchase among consumers,” he says. Gold3 enjoyed an excellent reception in Japan last season and demand is strong from Zespri's customers there as the new season's shipment gets underway.

This year's 30 million trays of gold kiwifruit – 25 million of Gold3 (marketed as Zespri SunGold) – surpasses the previous high of 29 million trays sold in the 2011 season.

'The forecast gold volume this season has nearly doubled from around 18 million trays harvested last season and we are also looking forward to another great green crop, with more than 70 million trays forecast from a total crop volume of around 108 million trays of premium Zespri Kiwifruit.”

The first shipment is of fruit harvested from Gisborne, Katikati and Te Puke last week and as the season continues, 55 Zespri chartered refrigerated ships – including five ships direct to Shanghai – and 8,000 refrigerated containers will carry the 2015 Zespri harvest to 54 countries around the world.

Kiwifruit is loaded onto the Atlantic Erica.

The growth in production represents a remarkable come-back for the industry so hard hit by the vine disease Psa-V which saw the large scale removal of the gold variety Hort16A. Fruit volumes have now reached pre-Psa levels and are not stopping there. Lain says Zespri is well on track to sell more than 50 million trays of Gold3 in 2018.

Hayward green growers are also lifting production with average yields now around 9,000 trays a hectare for the second year in a row.

To meet the dramatic increase in production the post-harvest sector has made significant investment in packing and cool storage facilities, showing confidence in the industry's future.

'The New Zealand industry continues along the Psa recovery pathway, transitioning from the previous gold variety Hort16A to Gold3 with 4,593 licensed hectares in New Zealand. With total volumes of premium Gold kiwifruit expected to reach pre-Psa levels this season and orchard values back to pre-Psa prices, our industry is good heart.

'While the impact of Psa is still being felt across the kiwifruit industry, this remarkable turnaround is testament to the cooperative and pragmatic nature of the industry and the strong support we have received from Government.

'Our in-market teams are focused on building the demand for Gold3, introducing customers and consumers around the world to this great-tasting new Zespri product.”

Zespri continues to serve and develop new opportunities in its long-standing markets of Japan and Europe, as well as new markets in rapidly-developing economies, including China, the Middle East and Brazil.Zespri sales in China have grown at about 30 percent per annum over the last decade and are forecast to continue at around 20 percent per annum until 2020, with China expected to be Zespri's number one market a few years' time.

The first ship for Europe is due to depart Tauranga in early April.