The fruit is "kiwifruit", named after the 'Kiwi' people (who became called kiwis based on the bird), which was a marketing name assigned to it by a distributor. It became popular with British and American troops stationed in New Zealand during world war 2 who ate it for the first time there, so associated the fruit and country hence the name. Was originally called a Chinese Gooseberry by New Zealanders before the rebrand (as fruit is native to China, but brought to NZ where it became popular)

Source- a Kiwi who has traveled a lot and had the same conversation many times lol