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Is It Time For Zespri To Think The Unthinkable in China?


Is It Time For Zespri To Think The Unthinkable in China? visual media slide

Did you know China is now sitting on 10,000–15,000 hectares of G3-type gold kiwifruit, all descended from stolen New Zealand genetics? Most shoppers haven’t a clue. They just see sweet, gold-fleshed fruit and buy whatever looks good and a huge chunk of that “gold kiwi” is Chinese, not Zespri. Quiet, massive, and maturing fast, China’s shadow G3 world is now too big to ignore.


Which leads to a blunt question: is it time for Zespri to revisit the idea of a second brand? Not to replace SunGold, but to protect it. If a mid-tier, China-specific brand sat under the Zespri umbrella, the whole category could be stabilised instead of drifting into confusion. It’s not capitulation, it’s containment with benefits.


Enter a hypothetical concept name: JINXI FRUIT (金喜), meaning Golden Joy. It has the right sound profile, familiar enough to sit near “Zespri” on the shelf but distinct enough to carry its own lane. It signals optimism, modernity, and a clean bridge between two supply worlds. Not real, not yet, but a provocative blueprint for how Zespri could turn a decade-old problem into a strategic option.



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