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Season calendar

New Zealand fresh produce export calendar

When New Zealand ships kiwifruit, apples, avocados and buttercup squash by sea, month by month, on the longest reefer lanes in the calendar.

Load ports
Tauranga, Napier, and Nelson
Produce covered
Kiwi Apple Avocado Buttercup squash
Lanes out of here
New Zealand → Philadelphia, New Zealand → Rotterdam
New Zealand fresh produce export calendar: which produce ships in which month.
Produce January February March April May June July August September October November December
Kiwi January: Not shipping February: Not shipping March: Not shipping April: Shoulder May: Peak June: Peak July: Peak August: Peak September: Shoulder October: Shoulder November: Shoulder December: Not shipping
Apple January: Not shipping February: Shoulder March: Peak April: Peak May: Peak June: Peak July: Shoulder August: Shoulder September: Not shipping October: Not shipping November: Not shipping December: Not shipping
Avocado January: Shoulder February: Shoulder March: Not shipping April: Not shipping May: Not shipping June: Not shipping July: Not shipping August: Shoulder September: Peak October: Peak November: Peak December: Shoulder
Buttercup squash January: Peak February: Peak March: Peak April: Shoulder May: Not shipping June: Not shipping July: Not shipping August: Not shipping September: Not shipping October: Not shipping November: Not shipping December: Shoulder
Peak — shipping in volume Shoulder — opening or closing Export windows out of the origin, not arrival weeks. Add the lane's transit.

Last reviewed August 2026. Windows are editorial ranges for a normal year, not a published schedule, and they are export weeks out of New Zealand rather than arrival weeks in your market.

New Zealand exports two crops at a scale that matters to a European or American buyer — kiwifruit and apples — and both of them are on the calendar because of the same property: they store. That is not incidental. New Zealand is further from its markets than any other origin here, five weeks by sea to Northern Europe, and nothing that cannot sit in a controlled atmosphere for that long has a programme on those lanes.

So the shipping window is longer than the harvest window and is set by the seller rather than by the tree. Kiwifruit is picked from March and ships into December; apples harvest from February and ship well past the autumn. The practical consequence is that an arrival date on this origin is a commercial decision someone made months earlier, and the fruit’s age on the shelf is a number worth asking for rather than inferring from the sailing date.

Buttercup squash is the exception on the page and worth knowing about for that reason. It goes to Japan rather than to Europe, on a lane of weeks rather than of months, and it is grown on contract against a specification agreed before planting. Distance is not what constrains it and storage is not what makes it possible.

Kiwi

May–August peak · April, September–November shoulder Varieties: Hayward green, SunGold

Harvest runs from about February to June; shipping runs from March into November. New Zealand is the origin that defines this crop for a European or Asian buyer. The gap between those two ranges is the whole point: the fruit is held in store and released against a programme rather than against the harvest.

New Zealand kiwi: window and arrival weeks · Kiwi across every origin

Apple

March–June peak · February, July–August shoulder Varieties: Royal Gala, Braeburn, Envy, Jazz

Harvest from February to May out of Hawke’s Bay and Nelson, shipping from March into the Northern Hemisphere autumn. It lands in the months when European and North American apples are at their oldest, which is the entire commercial argument for shipping fruit half way round the world.

New Zealand apple: window and arrival weeks · Apple across every origin

Avocado

September–November peak · August, December–February shoulder Varieties: Hass

Roughly August to February, peaking in the Southern Hemisphere spring. Volume is small next to the Latin American origins and most of it goes to Australia and East Asia, where the shorter lane is what makes it work.

New Zealand avocado: window and arrival weeks · Avocado across every origin

Buttercup squash

January–March peak · April, December shoulder Varieties: Delica

Harvest from about late December, shipping January to April into Japan. It is the shortest window New Zealand runs and the only one on this page sold almost entirely to a single country — Japanese kabocha supply runs out in the New Year, and this is what covers the gap until it comes back.

New Zealand buttercup squash: window and arrival weeks · Buttercup squash across every origin

FAQ

What fresh produce does New Zealand export?
New Zealand ships kiwis, apples, avocados, and buttercup squashes. The calendar on this page gives each one's export window month by month.
When does New Zealand export kiwis?
New Zealand ships kiwis May–August, with April and September–November at the shoulders. These are export weeks out of the origin, not arrival weeks in your market.
Which ports does New Zealand export fresh produce from?
Tauranga, Napier, and Nelson. The load port is worth knowing because the lane's transit — and so the shelf life left on arrival — is measured from it.

Importing produce out of New Zealand? Trackberry tracks those containers and reads the paperwork that arrives with them, in one place. See how it works for produce importers, or book a 20-minute chat.

Other origins

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