I think it's more instructive to ask the question another way: I want to task you with hand-delivering a small envelope to another address in the continental United States, to be named later, and I want the delivery to occur within a few days of the handoff. How much would you like me to pay you to provide such a service?
I like the premise of the article, but there are two shortcomings.
1) Kiwifruit are distributed through existing food distribution networks. New Zealand's economy is primarily driven by agricultural exports, and so they have good (cheap!) ways of getting food to overseas markets quickly and cheaply. Similarly, food distribution (once it reaches the US) is setup through corporate structures (such as supermarket chains and distributors), where high-value products will be delivered together in high volumes regularly tos specific location, rather than a single low-value item being delivered by hand to a specific address that may only receive post intermittently.
2) The New Zealand dollar is worth approximately 0.5 USD. Exporters basically make their income based on the difference in labour, land and materials costs in New Zealand versus the export value of their product in USD.
I think it's more instructive to ask the question another way: I want to task you with hand-delivering a small envelope to another address in the continental United States, to be named later, and I want the delivery to occur within a few days of the handoff. How much would you like me to pay you to provide such a service?