The Kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis) is a climbing plant that resembles the grapevine. It is a native of China, where it has been enjoyed as an edible fruit for more than 2,000 years. Around 
The Kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis) is a climbing plant that resembles the grapevine. It is a native of China, where it has been enjoyed as an edible fruit for more than 2,000 years. Around 1750, the Jesuit Father, Pierre Le Chéron d'Incarville, was the first European to describe this plant. It grew on the edge of forests situated on either side of the Yangtze River. After having evangelised the Chinese, the missionaries would bring the Actinidia to Florida, New Zealand and Europe as a decorative plant. At that time, the fruit was called « Chinese Gooseberry » on account of its colour and the fact that it had a similar taste to the gooseberry
The first plants appeared in France in 1904, at Selva Brancolar near Nice, and at the Botanic Gardens of Paris in 1920. The only female plant studied at the Paris Natural History Museum bore fruit for the first time in 1937, and yielded 85 kg in October 1940. It produced fruit every year from then on!
However, it was not until the 1960s that the kiwifruits were developed on a wider scale. Nowadays, it is grown in France, United States, Japan, Italy, Chile, Greece, etc. 1.45 million tonnes of kiwifruits are produced worldwide every year, with approximately half this amount grown in the Mediterranean region. Italy, with 32% of global production, is the market leader. Then we have two other leading producers, New Zealand (28%) and Chile (16 %). Greece is next with 6.1% followed by France with 5.5 % of the market
Italy, the world’s leading producer, has carried out research into the development of new cultivars, at the University of Udine, for example. France (No. 5 in the world and the third largest European producer) produced a little less than 63,000 tonnes in 2018, i