"Some of the best loading of fresh fruit pallets I have ever seen"
Those are the words straight out of Peter Johansen’s (Great American Lines Company Vice President) mouth about our team of stevedores loading kiwifruit onto the Sunbelt Spirit recently docked in Tauranga.
The Sunbelt Spirit is one of the world’s largest vehicle/refrigerated cargo ships and with the downturn in the vehicle market it was perfect timing for the vessel to be used to cargo kiwifruit instead.
Inside the ship it looks like a huge carpark and it can carry 6200 units (Toyota corona). Her roots began when a kiwi ship designer, Peter Dent, came up with the idea of a side loading concept over 30 years ago. He was in port to see how his original ship the Sunbelt Dixie has evolved to this larger model, the Sunbelt Spirit.
150 pallets were loaded every hour with a total of 7500 pallets of green and gold kiwifruit bound for the port of Zeebrugge in Belgium. It has been a real success for everyone involved, to see our team of stevedores load up the Sunbelt spirit visit this link: