Horti China 2018: Goodwei Kiwifruit Brand from Jingold Officially Launches

With the stroke of a pen at the brand launch ceremony of the Goodwei kiwifruit brand on November 21 at the Horti China trade show in Shanghai, the Italian kiwifruit marketer Jingold officially enters in the management of the Jintao variety in China. The story of the new Goodwei brand, under which Jingold will supply Chinese consumers with kiwifruit grown under license domestically in China, is also a case study in cooperation between an overseas produce company and Chinese government bodies.

Goodwei, which is already producing fruit commercially in China starting from this season—with volumes expected to pick up next season—is a collaboration between Jingold and the Wuhan Botanical Garden, a research-focused institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Of the one green variety and one yellow variety that Goodwei is initially producing, the yellow variety has the more interesting backstory.

The “Jintao” (金桃) cultivar was originally developed by the Wuhan Botanical Garden from wild Actinidia Chinensis vines gathered in the 1980s in China’s Jiangxi province. In the early 2000s, Jingold acquired exclusive propagation rights for Jintao, and developed the growth of the variety in Italy and many countries in the world. It will continue to sell imported Jingold branded fruit in China alongside the new Goodwei branded fruit.

During last week’s launch event, Federico Milanese, International Development Manager for Jingold SpA and Dr ZHONG Caihong of the Chinese Academy of Science’s yellow kiwifruit research group had a signing ceremony, with the agreement between the two entities licensing the Jintao variety to Goodwei as the only legally authorized seller of the variety in China. Therefore, after years of commercial success abroad, Jintao will now be introduced in the country where it was bred. And its original breeder, the Wuhan Botanical Gardens, a government-run organization, will be one of the commercial partners.

The agreement will strengthen the long term cooperation between WIB and Jingold on development of new kiwifruit varieties and their commercial introduction on both Chinese and global market.

The main stage positioned at the entrance to the Horti China show hall served for most of the day on the 21^st (The opening day of Horti China) as a showcase for a range of product launches by various fresh fruit companies, including the Goodwei brand launch. This gave exhibitors a spotlight to show products they are excited about and exhibitors a one-stop location to see the newest products and trends in China’s fresh fruit industry.

Goodwei is also receiving support from the Hong Guang project run by Wuhan Botanical Garden’s parent organization, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), which oversees and guides scientific research in China at a national level. Hong Guang is an initiative to identify promising breakthroughs in fundamental research and develop them into practical applications with economic and/or social benefits (commercialization of fundamental research in agriculture and other fields has been a weak point in China in the past and is now a priority).

Goodwei is the first company in the fruit industry to be included in the Hong Guang project, the logo of which appears on the Goodwei kiwifruit packaging. So far, Goodwei is cooperating with a group of growers in China to grow its fruit under license.

“All of our growers will receive specialized training provided by international experts and the Chinese Academy of Sciences,” says Harry Xu, General Manager of Jingold (Shanghai) Fruits and Vegetables Trading Co. Ltd. “We are bringing in advanced technology from international partners. And we will be growing to European standards, with a high level of standardization, professional management and quality and safety monitoring, as well as Global G.A.P. certification and Chinese export certification.”

The Chinese kiwifruit harvest takes place from September through November.

The Goodwei booth at Hori China 2018 was buzzing with visitors eager to sample the green and yellow Goodwei kiwifruit themselves. “We were happy to have a booth at Horti Fruit and to have the opportunity to hold our brand launch here,” says Xu.

“There were a lot of key players from industry and government here, including representatives from a lot of the big brands and channels. It was good they had a chance to taste the quality of our product for themselves. We received a lot of interest in our product based on people coming here and tasting for themselves.”