Abstract A 3-D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of palletised polylined kiwifruit packages undergoing forced-air cooling was used to determine an optimal operating point. Two operating conditions (pressure drop and flowrate across the pallet) were tested and the results evaluated based on cooling rate, uniformity, energy requirement and pallet throughput per week. An optimal operating point of 100 Pa (0.25 L kg −1 s −1 ) ensured relatively rapid cooling of the produce, without incurring excessive operational costs due to the energy requirements. Based on the results an alternative package was designed with the aim of redistributing the incoming refrigerated airflow to channel cool air through the pallet layers before directing it towards the slowest cooling packages, located at the back of the pallet. Evaluating the new design at the optimal conditions for the current package showed that at constant flowrate both pressure drop and energy requirement to achieve half-cooling time (HCT) were reduced by 24%, while improving cooling uniformity and pallet throughput per week. Alternatively, keeping the pressure drop constant required a similar energy input, while further increasing the cooling uniformity and pallet throughput.