The significance of what Mary Isabel Fraser did in 1904 has become apparent only with hindsight.
Fraser, a school teacher, returned from a trip to see her missionary sister in China with some seeds of an exotic fruit - the Chinese gooseberry.
She gave them to a Whanganui nurseryman, Alexander Allison, setting off a chain of events that would give birth to the kiwifruit industry at the end of the 20th century.
Renowned nurseryman Hayward Wright of Avondale bought a case of chinese gooseberries and used it to develop the standard kiwifruit cultivar that today bears his name. Now there are thousands of growers producing the fruit, marketed as Zespri, and earning more than a billion export dollars every year.
With hindsight, Mary Fraser is our New Zealander of the Year for her unknowing role in planting the seeds of a major export industry.
