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 River Company set up its headquarters at the mouth of the Gooseberry, and built a logging railroad running inland to harvest the thick pine stands in the region. The railway was removed by 1908, but when the Virginia & Rainy Lake Company began logging further inland, the Nestor grade was once again used to build a spur line to connect the project with the Duluth & Northern Minnesota Railway. In the upper reaches of the watershed of the Gooseberry and its tributaries, communities began to grow on the Alger Line. One, London, was located where the Alger Line passed over the