Kiwifruit 2010 it was found in New Zealand's Bay of Plenty kiwifruit orchards in the North Island. Scientists reported they had worked out the strain of PSA affecting kiwifruit from New Zealand, Italy and Chile originated in China. In 2016, global production of kiwifruit was 4.3 million tonnes, led by China with 56% of the world total (table). Italy and New Zealand were other major producers. In China, kiwifruit is grown mainly in the mountainous area upstream of the Yangtze River, as well as Sichuan. Kiwifruit exports rapidly increased from the late 1960s to early 1970s in New Zealand. By 1976,
Kiwifruit servicemen stationed in New Zealand during World War II, and was later exported, first to Great Britain and then to California in the 1960s. In New Zealand during the 1940s and 1950s, the fruit became an agricultural commodity through the development of commercially viable cultivars, agricultural practices, shipping, storage, and marketing. Much of the breeding to refine the green kiwifruit and develop the gold Zespri was done by the Plant & Food Research Institute (formerly HortResearch) during the decades of 1970-1999. In 1990, the New Zealand Kiwifruit Marketing Board opened an office for Europe in Antwerp, Belgium, which became the