20 | Trevelyan’s Pack & Cool: Coolstore Development T T Virginia Wright Kiwifruit leader ahead of the curve The focus on sustainability runs through everything they do at Trevelyan’s. “It means we can influence the way it’s grown with our particular methods of ensuring we produce world class fruit, then manage it all the way through until it’s ready to export.” REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Based in Te Puke, Trevelyan’s Pack & Cool was commercially founded in 1971 and has expanded steadily over the years to become New Zealand’s largest single-site kiwifruit and avocado packhouse. As Zespri continues to grow and the kiwifruit industry in particular keeps bringing on more fruit Trevelyan’s is ensuring their capacity grows along with it. Around 250 permanent staff work on site in Te Puke, including those keeping things running behind the scenes and everyone involved in the packing and cool store facilities — all working together to ensure the produce stays in excellent condition until it’s time to reach markets across New Zealand and the world. That number swells to around 1500 staff on site during the harvest season as the fruit pours in, but luckily, nature smiles on them with different species coming ripe at different times allowing the packhouses and cool stores to keep up. Red kiwifruit is usually harvested first from mid-February, followed by gold and green varieties in March. The export market for avocado then runs from August to January, but the local avocado market runs all year and is given a cool store of its own through the kiwifruit harvest. Trevelyan’s 30 hectare site now houses four export packhouses and one for the local market, and 44 cool stores including one soon to be completed. It’s the latest of their ongoing investments in automation, controlled atmosphere (CA) technology, and sustainable, energy-efficient designs. Cool store Manager Troy Ward did much of the research and development that went into the new facilities design, together with his colleague, Mike McCauley, working out which layout would maximise the area available and how to optimise the electrical, refrigeration and racking systems with an eye on energy efficiency and sustainability. “We had a lot of in-depth discussions around cost, efficiency and sustainability to get the best outcome for Trevelyan’s. “We were looking at multiple different options and ended up choosing an ammonia system which is a natural refrigerant. “It’s more expensive than the freon system but good over the long term because of its efficiencies and because it reduces our carbon emissions if we were to have any leaks in the system,” Troy says. Their focus on sustainability runs through everything they do at Trevelyan’s, along with their three values of Work Smart, Tread Lightly and Respect our People. That’s why they sort all their waste properly at source, everything from plastic wrapping to broken pallets, putting it to good use where possible, and successfully diverting 95% from landfill. Given the scope of their operation that’s a big win for the environment. Trevelyan’s packs and stores fruit from around 250 avocado growers and 348 kiwifruit growers across New Zealand. About 25% of that fruit is grown and managed by Trevelyan’s Managed Orchards, which is a win-win all round explains Troy. “It means we can influence the way it’s grown with our particular methods of ensuring we produce world class fruit, then manage it all the way through until it’s ready to export.” The new cool store holds 1400 pallets, or 360,000 trays of kiwifruit, which will help to accommodate the anticipated increase in volume of fruit from the 20 million+ Class 1 trays they packed in 2025 to the projected 21 million in 2026. In a big year they might do a million avocado trays. Last year they did around 600,000 of which 350,000 went locally, but whether it’s kiwifruit or avocado Trevelyan’s service remains the same: to provide technical advice, hands on support and clear communication to deliver impressive results every single season. As the 2026 kiwifruit harvest rapidly approaches they’re looking forward to packing record numbers of top-class fruit and safely storing it before sending it out to be enjoyed around the world. Proud to support Trevelyans Pack N Cool
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