A school principal brought Chinese gooseberry seeds in 1904; kiwifruit hits record forecast

New Zealand’s kiwifruit story dates back to 1904, when Mary Isabel Fraser, a school principal, brought Chinese gooseberry seeds home from China. She gave the seeds to Whanganui farmer Alexander Allison, who planted them in 1905; the vines produced their first fruit by 1910. According to a February 2026 report from the US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service, the fruit was initially known as the ‘Chinese gooseberry’ before New Zealand exporters renamed it ‘kiwifruit’ in 1959 for the United States market. More than a century after Fraser brought the seeds to New Zealand, the country has become the world’s largest kiwifruit exporter.How a school principal in 1904 helped bring Chinese gooseberries to New ZealandIn 1904, Mary Isabel Fraser, a school principal, brought Chinese gooseberry seeds from China and gave them to a farmer, who planted them near Whanganui, which a USDA report described as the beginning of New Zealand’s kiwifruit history. The vines produced their first fruit in 1910. Around the same period, the species was also being tested as a commercial crop in the United Kingdom and the United States, but those attempts were largely unsuccessful in producing...