A large share of New Zealand’s export earnings depends on getting perishable product to market in condition. Food and fibre exports are forecast at $64.3 billion for the year to June 2026, with dairy at a record $28.6 billion and horticulture at $9.5 billion on record kiwifruit and apple volumes.
Almost all of it moves under temperature control, and the failures cluster in predictable places.
Failures happen at handovers
Refrigerated containers and trucks generally hold temperature well while running. The breaks occur where responsibility changes hands:
- Loading and unloading, where product sits on a dock at ambient temperature.
- Container plugging and unplugging at transfer points, including at the port.
- Pre-cooling — loading warm product into a reefer and expecting the unit to bring it down. Reefers maintain temperature; they are not designed to remove field heat.
- Delays at the border, particularly biosecurity holds.
- Power interruptions during transfer or storage.
The practical implication: monitoring matters most at handovers, and responsibility should be explicitly allocated at each one.
Temperature monitoring and evidence
Data loggers travelling with the consignment are standard, and increasingly real-time telemetry allows intervention rather than post-mortem.
Two purposes: preventing loss, and proving where a failure occurred. Without continuous data, a temperature excursion becomes an argument between shipper, carrier and receiver that nobody can resolve.
Keep the records. They are the evidence in an insurance claim and in any dispute about who bears the loss.
Who carries the risk
Determined by the Incoterm and the contract. State the term, the named place precisely, and the edition — FCA Tauranga, Incoterms 2020. Incoterms 2020 remains current; there is no 2026 edition despite it being a common search term.
For containerised cargo, FCA is generally the correct term rather than FOB. Under FOB, risk passes when goods are on board, but containers are delivered to the terminal days earlier — leaving the seller carrying risk over goods they no longer control and cannot inspect.
Carrier liability is capped, usually well below cargo value, and excludes consequential loss. Marine cargo insurance is therefore essential rather than optional, and it should be checked for whether it responds to temperature excursion specifically — some policies exclude it or require particular conditions.
Capacity is the seasonal constraint
Reefer capacity tightens predictably during horticultural peaks. Kiwifruit and apple seasons create concentrated demand, and shippers who book late in those windows pay for it or do not ship.
Port of Tauranga handles a substantial share of New Zealand’s containerised exports including record reefer volumes for the kiwifruit sector. Booking early against known peaks is the practical answer, and building the lead time into customer commitments rather than promising dates that assume space.
Biosecurity delays are the common disruption
Into New Zealand, MPI requirements cause more delay than customs. Outbound, the equivalent is the destination country’s requirements — and for perishable product, a documentation hold is a value problem rather than a timing one.
Documentation must match the consignment exactly. A container number transposed or a treatment date outside the required window causes holds, and for chilled product the clock is unforgiving.
Market access underpins all of it
Export of food products depends on access negotiated government-to-government and maintained through MPI certification that importing countries rely on.
That is why cold chain compliance matters beyond the individual consignment. A temperature failure that results in a food safety issue at destination affects confidence in the assurance system, not just one shipment.
Practical checklist
- Pre-cool product to temperature before loading — the reefer maintains, it does not chill.
- Data loggers on every consignment, with records retained.
- Explicit responsibility allocation at each handover point.
- Incoterm stated with named place and edition.
- Cargo insurance confirmed to respond to temperature excursion.
- Reefer capacity booked ahead of seasonal peaks.
- Documentation checked against the consignment before dispatch.
MPI publishes export requirements and market access information, New Zealand Customs publishes border requirements, and both are free.
Figures: Ministry for Primary Industries, Situation and Outlook for Primary Industries, forecasts for the year to 30 June 2026. General information only.
