First commercial volumes of Celina picked, packed and shipped

There has been much excitement and anticipation over the past few years about the first commercial harvest in South Africa of the new Celina pear, an attractive, blushed pear, harvested early on in the season that beats all its competitors to the consumer shelves.

Finally the wait is over and the first commercial harvest of the Celina pear is done and dusted. The Stargrow group who own the exclusive rights to the Celina pear in South Africa, has picked, packed and shipped the first ever harvest in South Africa for commercial use of this beautiful blushed fruit mainly from orchards in the Langkloof area.

The Celina pear which bears fruit with an intense red blush, uniform shape and size of between 160 and 230 grams, or 65-75 mm in diameter. Being a summer pear it is picked sweet off the tree and ready to eat, but also has exceptional storage potential and good shelf life. Additionally, being harvest very early on in the season, it has a distinct advantage over its competing cultivars as being a season opener and does not lose its intense red blush during the hot January summer days. Needless to say this pear is in high demand and fetches a premium in the market place.

This first commercial harvest yielded good sized fruit despite the Western Cape area of South Africa where the orchards are located experiencing one of the most extreme droughts ever.

The harvested fruit has been packed in 12.5kg telescopic boxes and 800g punnets for export by the Stargrow group to European markets and the Middle East where the market for pears of this colour is almost completely empty. A small percentage was made available for local markets through Freshmark from the Shoprite Checkers Group.

Andries van der Westhuizen from the Stargrow group commented as follow: “We are very satisfied with the 2018 Celina harvest. The colour development was extraordinary, the pack outs were fantastic and the sizing good. Demand seems to be very high and we foresee great things for this variety in the future”

For more information:
Esmari Roux-Erasmus
StarGrow
Tel: +27 (0) 21 880 1882
Email: esmari@stargrow.co.za
www.stargrow.co.za