Pear investment coming up rosy
A new Nelson-bred pear is proving a hit overseas and earning a handful of local growers excellent money, giving some hope to a struggling pipfruit industry, as Peter Watson reports.
In more than 30 years growing pipfruit, Bruce Fraser hasn’t seen a pear with such promise. Shaped more like an apple and bright red, PremP109 has been stirring up a storm since being released in tiny amounts last year. Dubbed a ‘‘papple’’ in Britain, it has been selling at Marks and Spencer stores for an eyewatering £1 (NZ$2.10) a piece and returning growers back here more than $100 an 18kg carton, a staggering sum at a time of hardship in the industry.
Bred by state-owned Plant and Food in Motueka, it is the first of a new generation of hybrid pears to be commercialised. PremP109 – which is to get a trademark name shortly – is a cross between Chinese and Japanese pear varieties. Others bringing together the best elements of European and Asian varieties are set to follow in what promoters hope will create a new class of high-value pears.
Mr Harris first got to see and taste a PremP109 at a field day about four years ago and thought it was an ‘‘absolute winner’’. A former nashi grower, he quickly saw its potential.
‘‘Just in eye appeal alone it’s very attractive with its red colour, and it tastes great and has much more flavour than a nashi.’’
He was planting a new block of comice pears at the time so when Prevar – which owns the rights to the PremP109 – offered him 100 trees to trial he jumped at the chance.
They proved so strong and quickgrowing he soon planted more, and now has 2000 of an estimated 5000 trees growing in New Zealand in his Riwaka orchard.
Using an ebro espalier system to ‘‘tame’’ their growth, he had a pickable crop in the second year, with yields soaring since. As well as being a heavy cropper, PremP109 had a tougher skin than nashi so didn’t suffer the same bird damage or mark as readily, which made it easier to handle, Mr Fraser said.
All of this year’s export crop of under 5000 cartons – produced by himself and a Mahana grower – went through his packhouse and Mr Fraser is keen to see this increase.
He has just pulled out his taylors gold pear trees because the variety seemed out of market favour and hopes to replace them with more PremP109 ‘‘if I can make enough money from this year’s crop’’.
That shouldn’t be too much of a problem given that they are expected to go close to matching last year’s returns, which saw him net more than $50 a carton once growing and packaging cost of $25 a carton and shipping charges of $10 a carton were taken into account.
Such ‘‘outstanding returns’’ left his main 6000-tree comice crop, which would return a respectable $40 a carton this season, and all apple varieties ‘‘for dead’’, he said.
‘‘We have really hurt with the downturn in the pipfruit industry over the last few years, but this gives us hope.’’
He had no doubts the variety would continue to do well given its excellent entry on to the export markets and the ‘‘super support’’ he had received from Plant and Food, Prevar and the NZ Fruit Company, which held the New Zealand licence to grow and export PremP109.
Mr Fraser said his one regret was that he didn’t think to register the papple name.
NZ Fruit Company chief executive John Morton said the variety’s early success in Britain had come as a surprise because it was thought it would do better in Asian markets which were the biggest consumers of nashistyle pears. But Marks and Spencer had aggressively promoted it through the internet and other media channels, which had paid off.
Small amounts of fruit sent to other markets, such as Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand, had attracted similar feedback and prices, although he expected that to ease to a more sustainable level once volumes increased.
The ‘‘market hype’’ had helped spark interest among mainly traditional pipfruit growers and he expected plantings to double over the next year. Although there were trial plots throughout the country, virtually all major plantings had been carried out by a handful of Nelson growers who were more used than growers elsewhere to growing pears.
‘‘There is a wide range of apple varieties available but very few of these inter-specific pears, so people are seeing that having something a little bit unique is an advantage when you are going into the marketplace.’’
One of Nelson’s biggest pear growers, Peter Hansen, said he would be talking to Mr Fraser about growing the PremP109.
While returns for pears had risen this season, mainly because of a shortage of fruit in the United States, most growers would still struggle to break even because of lower yields and the high dollar, so looking at other options made sense, he said.
Prevar director and former Pipfruit NZ chief executive Peter Beaven said Plant and Food’s breeding programme had produced a huge range of fruit of all shapes, sizes and colours. ‘‘There is far greater genetic diversity for pears than apples.’’
PremP109, which was more scuffresistant than nashi and stored well, was the first of three varieties of second-generation hybrid pears to be commercialised which had already attracted significant interest, he said. ‘‘We have received inquiries from companies in North America, Asia and Europe interested in entering into licensing arrangements – it’s been very encouraging.’’
The aim was to create a new fruit category, ‘‘like the kiwifruit when it first emerged’’, which combined the crunchy, juicy and ready-to-eat qualities of an Asian pear with the more robust flavours of a European pear.
The papple tag had been rejected as a trade name because it sounded like a variation of an existing fruit rather than something new, he said.
For Plant and Food peer breeder Lester Brewer the new hybrid pears are the culmination of years of work.
What made PremP109 – which resulted from a cross made in 1996 – exciting was it was the first crisp pear with red skin to be commercialised, he said.
But New Zealand consumers are unlikely to see it on their shop shelves until prices fall and local supplies rise.