The taste of kiwi fruit fascinates many people, but its price prohibits most people. China imports nearly 80,000 tons from New Zealand every year. Zespri's sales in China reached 500 million New Zealand dollars (approximately 2.2 billion yuan) in 2018. ?
In fact, this fruit named after New Zealand’s national bird is actually native to China. It was smuggled out of China by a foreign woman in 1904. Its name was kiwi before leaving China.
Kiwi fruit stolen
Kiwi fruit first originated in Wuduhe Town, Yiling District, Yichang City, Hubei Province. In 1897, the British Wilson Ernest Henry was hired by the British Veitch Garden Chamber of Commerce. Become a "Plant Hunter". He accidentally discovered a plant he had never seen before in the wild in Yichang, which is kiwi fruit. This plant has both edible and ornamental values.
He realized that this fruit with a special taste must have extraordinary value, so he collected the seeds of this fruit and secretly sent them to the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. However, kiwi fruit requires male plants to pollinate female plants to bear fruit. , Wilson collected only male seeds, so the Americans only got a batch of ornamental plants after three years of cultivation.
In 1897, a New Zealand woman named Fan Kedi came to work at the Yichang branch of the Church of Scotland in Yichang. She discovered a fruit in Yichang that tasted similar to gooseberries but better than gooseberries. She asked the locals to learn about this fruit. The name is: "Yangtao", which is also kiwi fruit.
In 1904, Van Kedi returned to New Zealand and gave the kiwi seeds she secretly brought back to the farmer Alison. After Alison's careful cultivation, kiwifruit was planted on a large scale in New Zealand around 1930. Around 1950, New Zealand kiwifruit could be used as a mature crop and exported to the UK. ?
In 1962, the sales of kiwi fruits in the United States encountered obstacles. It took several months to sell 1,000 kiwi fruits. An investigation by fruit supplier Frieda Kaplan found that Americans were not familiar with kiwi fruits, which led to their purchase. Desire is low. So Frieda Kaplan named the kiwi after New Zealand's national bird, the kiwi.
The kiwi fruit, renamed "kiwi", became popular in the United States with its new name and kiwi-like appearance. Since then, kiwi fruit has become popular in more than 60 countries around the world. Many countries are jealous of the profits of kiwi fruit and have imported fruit seedlings from New Zealand. Since then, kiwi fruit has left China and become popular all over the world.
It originated in China, but Chinese people cannot grow it casually
In 2018, Zespri Company discovered that the kiwi fruit variety it had cultivated: Sunshine Golden Fruit, was being planted illegally in China. So a prosecution was launched against the person involved, Mr. Gao. After investigation, the Auckland High Court of New Zealand concluded that the defendant Gao obtained and spread Sunshine Golden Fruit seeds through illegal means, causing huge losses to Zespri. Gao needs to pay Zespri 5 million New Zealand dollars (approximately RMB 67.43 million) in compensation.
Although kiwi fruit originated in China, Sunshine Golden Fruit is a new fruit variety developed by Zespri after years of breeding and research. It belongs to intellectual property rights and cannot be grown without permission.
China has a vast land and abundant animal and plant resources, the value of which is immeasurable. As long as we can rationally utilize and cultivate them, they may not be worse than New Zealand. On the other hand, we must pay attention to our country's resources and technology.
Porcelain originated in China, but the most expensive porcelain in the world is in Europe; Kiwi Sunshine Golden Fruit originated in China, but patent fees are required to grow it; most Kampo medicines come from the Chinese medical book "Treatise on Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases" 》prescription, but the patent is in the hands of Japan. If we don’t pay attention to it today, we will have nothing in the future.
Dear readers, do you know any other incidents similar to kiwi fruit, porcelain, and Kampo medicine? Welcome to leave a message in the comment area.