Chinese gooseberry becomes kiwifruit
15 June 1959 The prominent produce company Turners and Growers announced that it would from now on export Chinese gooseberries as ‘kiwifruit’. Introduced to this country in 1904, kiwifruit are now cultivated worldwide, with New Zealand-grown fruit marketed as ‘Zespri’.
Despite the name, kiwifruit are not native to New Zealand. Seeds were brought to New Zealand in 1904 by Mary Isabel Fraser, the principal of Wanganui Girls’ College, who had been visiting mission schools in China. They were planted in 1906 by a Whanganui nurseryman, Alexander Allison, and the vines first fruited in 1910. People thought the fruit had a gooseberry flavour and began to call it the Chinese gooseberry. It is not related to the Grossulariaceae family to which gooseberries belong.
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1959年6月15日，著名的农产品公司Turners and Growers宣布，从现在起，它将把中国的猕猴桃作为“猕猴桃”出口。猕猴桃于1904年引入新西兰，现在在全世界种植，新西兰种植的水果被称为“Zespri”。
尽管有猕猴桃的名字，但它并不是新西兰本土的。1904年，旺加努伊女子学院校长玛丽·伊莎贝尔·弗雷泽（Mary Isabel Fraser）将种子带到了新西兰，当时她正在中国参观教会学校。1906年，沃加努伊苗圃主亚历山大·艾利森种植了这种葡萄，1910年首次结出果实。人们认为这种水果有醋栗的味道，于是开始叫它中国醋栗。它与醋栗所属的罗汉果科没有亲缘关系。
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New Zealand began exporting the fruit to the US in the 1950s. This was the height of the Cold War and the term Chinese gooseberry was a marketing nightmare for Turners and Growers. Their first idea, ‘melonettes’, was equally unpopular with US importers because melons and berries were subject to high import tariffs. In June 1959, Jack Turner suggested the name kiwifruit during a Turners and Growers management meeting in Auckland. His idea was adopted and this later became the industry-wide name.
新西兰从20世纪50年代开始向美国出口这种水果。这是冷战的巅峰时期，中国猕猴桃这个词对特纳和种植者来说是一场营销噩梦。他们的第一个想法“Melonetes”同样不受美国进口商欢迎，因为西瓜和浆果需要缴纳高额进口关税。1959年6月，杰克·特纳在奥克兰的一次特纳和种植者管理会议上提出了猕猴桃的名字。他的想法被采纳，这后来成为全行业的名称。
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▲Kiwi seedlings▲
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The Bay of Plenty town of Te Puke, where New Zealand’s kiwifruit industry began, markets itself as the ‘Kiwifruit Capital of the World’. In 2017 China was the world’s leading producer of kiwifruit, followed by Italy, New Zealand, Iran and Chile. Most New Zealand kiwifruit is now marketed under the brand-name Zespri, partly as a way to distinguish ‘Kiwi’ kiwifruit from the produce of other countries.
特普克的丰盛湾镇是新西兰猕猴桃产业的发源地，其市场本身就是“世界猕猴桃之都”。2017年，中国是世界上猕猴桃的主要生产国，其次是意大利、新西兰、伊朗和智利。大多数新西兰猕猴桃现在以Zespri品牌销售，部分是为了将“猕猴桃”猕猴桃与其他国家的产品区分开来。
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