In Depth: New Zealand Fruit Giant’s Kiwi Battle in China

Kiwi, the small hairy fruit beloved for its sweet tropical taste and nutrition, has become a thorny issue for a New Zealand fruit giant in China, its largest export market. 

Zespri Group Ltd. owns the rights to the SunGold kiwifruit, a yellow variety that the company began cultivating in the 2010s. There are more than 8,000 hectares of SunGold kiwifruit planted in New Zealand, generating billions of dollars in exports every year. Farmers pay Zespri around $550,000 for the license to plant one hectare, or about two and a half acres, of the fruit.