It's 64 years since New Zealand re-branded the Chinese gooseberry as kiwifruit. 🥝 🥝

by Craig Kelly August 4, 2023

It's 64 years since New Zealand re-branded the Chinese gooseberry as kiwifruit. The first kiwifruit seeds were brought to New Zealand in 1904 by the principal of Wanganui Girls' College, Mary Fraser, who had been on a trip to China. In the 1950s, New Zealand began exporting the fruit to the US, but with the Cold War raging, something called ‘Chinese gooseberry’ was a tough product to sell US importers and consumers.