New Zealand single-desk kiwifruit marketer Zespri has launched its second season of growing trials in China's Shaanxi Province, in hopes it will one day supply the market with locally grown fruit. 

Though domestic growers already supply the local market, Zespri imports its kiwifruit from New Zealand, Italy and France, according to Shanghai Daily.

It began its first stage of growing trials last year with Chinese growers, while this year’s trials will involve Zespri growers working with Chinese partners to improve their understanding of the conditions, according to the company's China manager Lewis Pan.

“China has the biggest kiwifruit production globally, far more than New Zealand, so we should be able to grow kiwifruit here,” Pan was quoted as saying.

Loren Zhao, co-founder of fresh produce importer and online retailer FruitDay, said Zespri kiwifruit takes up 15% of all sales.

Pan said that while Zespri has competition from domestic growers of the green variety, its SunGold fruit, which comprises about half of its sales by volume, hasn’t been successfully replicated by Chinese growers, according to the story.

The firm may look at selling some of its Chinese-grown fruit from this season on the wholesale market, but not under the Zespri brand, Pan said.

“Eventually we want to have Chinese-grown fruit labeled Zespri,” he was quoted as saying.

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