Help with local and world translation.position

I have a fruit that i want to make the character run into. When he does, it places the fruit on top of the player and then he can run with the fruit. I placed a second fruit and rotated it 90 degrees on the x axis. I used the same code for the two fruit but the second rotated fruit now translates the wrong way.

It instead goes beneath the character. I think it is because its arrows for translation are local to the object. the y is facing in the z and the z in the y. I am using transform.position instead of the local version. What can i do to modify the code posted below so that the fruit moves on the global translation.

This is the code used in the fruits update method. It checks if the fruit has been picked up. And if so execute this code.

transform.position = new Vector3(playerobject.transform.position.x, playerobject.transform.position.y + fruitreference.y, playerobject.transform.position.z);

Thanks