Fake kiwifruit crackdown: Zespri imposters in China get jail time, fines

Zespri says Chinese officials are stepping up the fight to safeguard corporate trademark rights. Photo / Craig Robertson

A Chinese counterfeiter of Zespri kiwifruit labels has been jailed for more than three years for their part in a brand fraud scheme.

The global marketer said nine people had been sentenced in China for their involvement in the manufacture and distribution of more than nine million counterfeit Zespri labels in China.

One of the defendants had been sentenced to three years and three months in jail and ordered to pay a fine of 80,000 yuan ($18,700), the company said.

The other offenders had each received non-custodial sentences of between 18 months and up to three years. They had also all been fined.

Zespri told its New Zealand grower-owners in an industry update the prosecutions reflected a crackdown by Chinese authorities on those involved in counterfeiting registered trademarks, effectively safeguarding corporate trademark rights and protecting consumer interests.

The latest action followed police raids in early 2024 against Chinese sellers buying local kiwifruit to sell through stores on an e-commerce site, the Mount Maunganui-based company said.

Three people involved in that case were also sentenced in the latter part of 2024, with each receiving a sentence of three years and nine months in jail and ordered to pay a fine of 550,000 yuan ($125,000).

Another defendant in the related case was sentenced earlier in 2024, receiving a three-year suspended sentence, a fine of 20,000 yuan, and an order to pay compensation to Zespri of 30,000 yuan ($7300).

Zespri said the sentences follow its strategy of taking targeted action to keep unauthorised fruit or counterfeit branding out of the company’s key sales channels.

“This is critical in protecting the significant investment that has been made in building a leading global brand and by New Zealand producers in licensed kiwifruit varieties, and demonstrates our commitment to food safety,” the company said.

“The sentences also act as a powerful deterrent in China that the fraudulent use of intellectual property will not be tolerated, protecting the interests of New Zealand growers and Chinese consumers.”

China is an important market for Zespri. 20% of New Zealand kiwifruit is sold there.

It is also the source of Zespri’s biggest counterfeiting and rogue growing headaches.

The company warned recently that rogue production in China of New Zealand’s best-selling gold fruit variety was growing.

It estimated production in China of “unauthorised plantings” of New Zealand-bred and developed G3 gold fruit was now 40 million trays, of which 20 million trays were equal to Zespri first-class quality standard.

For context, Zespri exported a total of 190 million trays of kiwifruit in the record 2024 season, of which 124 million trays were SunGold.

Zespri, New Zealand’s biggest horticulture exporter, owns the rights to SunGold, or G3, and growers in this country paid hundreds of thousands of dollars per hectare each year for a licence to grow it.

A grower took clippings to China in 2016.

Zespri estimated 8387ha of unauthorised G3 plantings were now in the ground in China.

“Though we consider that the rate of planting has slowed, with less successful local growers switching to other varieties or land uses, overall production is increasing, as more of the plantings reach maturity,” the marketer said.

China and Japan are the biggest export markets for Zespri, which has the statutory right to export all New Zealand kiwifruit, except to Australia.

Grower-owned Zespri also has more than 1500 contracted offshore growers in Europe, Korea and Japan.