Kiwifruit industry in New Zealand In 1952, MacLoughlin approached the New Zealand Fruit Federation who agreed to facilitate the shipping and marketing of the fruit to United States markets, this was New Zealand’s first export of Chinese gooseberries. Due to pioneering research into the transportability of the fruit by John Pilkington Hudson and others at the agriculture department in Wellington, this was the first international export of the kiwifruit. As the local popularity of this fruit increased, New Zealanders discarded the local Chinese name for the fruit ("yáng táo") in favor of the name "Chinese gooseberry". Among the exporters was the prominent produce company Turners
Gooseberry Patch with the existing creative team. As a first step in this new growth strategy, Gooseberry Patch aggressively engaged in social media during late 2009. Not surprisingly, the loyal Gooseberry Patch fans responded enthusiastically. Consider the following milestones achieved: Nearly 270,000 actively engaged Facebook fans - ranking in the top 4% of corporate Facebook pages; 1.1M views of their YouTube channel - featuring book trailers, In the Kitchen with Vickie & JoAnn recipe how-to's & behind-the-scenes videos; over 11,500 followers on Twitter - engaging in lively interaction daily; averaging over 9,000 daily page views on their blog - publishing new stories