Cracking the kiwifruit code: How cultivar and origin co-create premium quality and consumer appeal

• Red-fleshed kiwifruit superior in taste, antioxidants, and consumer preference. • Green/yellow kiwifruit richer in dietary fiber, amino acids, and vitamin content. • Nine key traits drive consumer choice, informing breeding and market positioning. • Red cultivars show stable quality; green/yellow vary by growing origins. • Sugar-acid ratio and anthocyanins are top determinants of consumer liking. The global kiwifruit industry has diversified significantly, transitioning from traditional green-fleshed cultivars to novel red- and yellow-fleshed cultivars, yet systematic comparisons of their quality attributes and consumer preferences remain limited. This study evaluated six major kiwifruit cultivars (red-, yellow-, and green-fleshed) from four primary origins in China, employing a comprehensive analytical approach including partial least squares regression (PLSR), cluster analysis, and correlation analysis to systematically assess how origins and cultivars influence fruit quality and consumer preference, as well as their interrelationships. Results revealed significant variation in fruit quality and sensory characteristic among different flesh colors ( p < 0.05), with each type exhibiting distinct advantages. Consumers showed a strong preference for red-fleshed cultivars, driven primarily by nine key quality parameters: sugar-acid ratio, anthocyanin content, springiness, soluble solids, soluble sugars (glucose, fructose, sucrose), malic acid, and VB2 ( p < 0.05). Notably, effect analysis of cultivar-origin combinations demonstrated that red-fleshed cultivars exhibit relative stable quality traits across different growing origins, whereas green/yellow-fleshed cultivars display greater environmental sensitivity. These findings provide consumer guidance for evidence-based fruit selection, breeding targets oriented to market demand, and cultivation strategies that optimize origin-cultivar matching to enhance economic returns in kiwifruit production systems.