Chinese blow a gooseberry

By SIMON COLLINS science reporter

A hundred years after a Wanganui schoolteacher brought the first Chinese gooseberry seeds to New Zealand, China is about to regain its place as the world's biggest producer of the fruit now known as kiwifruit.

A joint study by HortResearch scientist Ross Ferguson and Dr H. Huang of China's Wuhan Institute of Botany found that China's kiwifruit production trebled in the four years to last year, from 118,500 to 340,425 tonnes. New Zealand's production rose only slightly in the same period, from 223,000 to 242,000 tonnes.

China, which did not even figure in a summary of the world's top eight kiwifruit producers published by the US Department of Agriculture in April, is now second only to Italy's production of 390,000 tonnes.

The Ferguson/Huang study shows that China will regain the top spot, with 400,000 to 500,000 tonnes, by 2006.

New Zealand's famous "Hayward" and "Bruno" varieties now account for a sixth of China's kiwifruit plantings.

The study forecasts that China will be the world's fourth-biggest producer of the Hayward cultivar when its current plantings mature.

"Export of fruit of this one cultivar, relatively unimportant in China but standard in other countries, could have a significant effect on world trade in kiwifruit," it says.

According to the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, a longstanding Wanganui Girls' College principal, Isabel Fraser (1863-1942), brought the first seeds of what was then called Chinese gooseberries to New Zealand after a visit to mission schools in China in 1903-04.

Zespri, which markets New Zealand kiwifruit, said consumers around the world could still rely on its "premium product".

"We obviously have respect for China's ability to produce products such as kiwifruit on a large scale," said Zespri communications manager Sandy Hodge.

"But Zespri's focus is on producing consistently great-tasting kiwifruit, which are produced under the Zespri system, ensuring that our premium fruit are produced sustainably within a world-class quality system."