Importance Score: 60 / 100 🔵
Many are only just discovering the original, and quite different, name of the kiwi fruit. This widely enjoyed produce, known for its fuzzy brown skin and tangy-sweet green flesh speckled with tiny black seeds, had a different moniker before the Cold War era. The story of this renaming, driven by political tensions and clever marketing, reveals a fascinating piece of history connected to this now universally recognised kiwi fruit.
The Fruit Formerly Known as Chinese Gooseberry
A London-based TikTok user, renowned for sharing gardening content, recently posted a video discussing the previous name of the kiwi while showcasing her own kiwi tree. The 34-year-old gardening enthusiast questioned, “Did you know that kiwis are only called kiwis because the Brits couldn’t handle its real name?”
She mentioned that her kiwi tree has yet to bear fruit or even blossom, attributing it to London’s climate, which she believes is “just not conducive to kiwi.”
“Luckily, we don’t have to grow our own kiwi in the UK because we import over 30 million KGs (kilograms) of the stuff from New Zealand every year. But that was not always the case because in 1959 these were called Chinese gooseberries.”
The Cold War Connection
The gardening and history aficionado elaborated that during the Cold War, “anything with Chinese associations drew negative and harsh reactions from western markets.” This made marketing a fruit under a ‘Chinese name’ a “nightmare for New Zealand exporters.”
This obstacle purportedly led Turners and Growers, a New Zealand exporter, to rebrand the fruit, drawing inspiration from New Zealand’s native bird, the kiwi, due to shared characteristics: both being small, brown, and fuzzy. The TikTok user concluded, “And just like that in 1959, the kiwi fruit hit the supermarket without all that political baggage, and it was a hit.”
It turns out many consumers were unaware of the kiwi fruit‘s former name. “I thought they were called Kiwis because they looked like the body of a kiwi bird,” one person commented. “This is really interesting, my mum always called them Chinese gooseberries I thought it was just one of her quirks,” noted another.
A third added, “Interesting. If I had to guess I would have assumed it was because the kiwi bird fed off them.”
From Chinese Gooseberry to Kiwi: A Marketing Transformation
The Cold War, a protracted geopolitical struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union and their allies, began in 1947 following World War II and continued until the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991.
According to New Zealand History, kiwi seeds made their way to New Zealand in 1904, brought by Mary Isabel Fraser, the principal of Wanganui Girls’ College, during a visit to mission schools in China. Alexander Allison, a Whanganui nurseryman, cultivated the seeds, and the vines first produced fruit in 1910.
The fruit’s flavor profile led to its initial naming as the Chinese gooseberry. The website further notes: “New Zealand began exporting the fruit to the US in the 1950s. This was the height of the Cold War and the term Chinese gooseberry was a marketing nightmare for Turners and Growers.”
The Birth of the Kiwi Fruit Name
- Their initial suggestion, ‘melonettes’, was equally unpopular with US importers because melons and berries were subject to high import tariffs.
- In June 1959, Jack Turner proposed the name kiwi fruit during a Turners and Growers management meeting in Auckland.
- His concept gained traction and ultimately became the industry-wide designation.
The adoption of the name kiwi fruit marked a pivotal moment, enabling the fruit to overcome political obstacles and achieve widespread commercial success.