Zespri may need to ditch or repackage 1.7m kiwifruit trays potentially contaminated by oil leak

UPDATED: Kiwifruit marketer Zespri International says it may need to ditch or repackage 1.7 million trays of kiwifruit it has put on precautionary hold after it was potentially affected by an oil leak in packaging.

Of the fruit being held back from customers, one million trays were still in New Zealand packhouses while 750,000 trays are on board ships in the first shipment of the season bound for Japan and Taiwan.

Small deposits of mechanical lubricant have been found on a number of kiwifruit pocket packs which hold the fruit in place in the single-layer trays made by a Chinese manufacturing plant. The lubricant has only been identified on less than 0.01% of pocket packs so far.

Zespri chief operating officer Simon Limmer said the problem was discovered by packhouse workers in New Zealand who were concerned the pocket packs didn't look right.

The lubricant deposits are believed to be due to a small leak from a grease line in the plant, the company said, and further supplies from the plant have been halted.

Limmer said he expects the results of testing in the next 24 hours on the lubricant's exact composition and that will determine whether the fruit can be repackaged for customers or ditched entirely. All affected fruit has been traced and none had yet got into consumers' hands, he said.

It will mean a slight delay in getting other fruit to those intended Japanese and Taiwanese customers as there's been a slow start to the season in the past couple of weeks due to a hot autumn but three ships are due to leave this week, he said.

Pocket packs represent around a third of the packaging used and Zespri can source them from other manufacturers in Chile and New Zealand.

The amount of affected kiwifruit represents 1% of its total forecast volume of 140 million trays for the 2016 season.

When asked who will bear the costs of the oil leak, Mr Limmer said he was concentrated on the operational issues right now and the costs will be resolved later once it's determined whether the fruit can be salvaged for export.

(BusinessDesk)