New pear variety shows promise in Australia
The researchers’ report said they were assessing the costs, benefits and risks of growing the pear on a block in the Goulburn Valley using discounted cashflow analysis.
“Potential advantages include more fresh fruit marketed at premium prices, earlier production to help repay the high establishment costs, and efficiencies in production and harvest operations at full bearing,” the report said.
“We assumed a price premium of 20 per cent for Deliza … the average farmgate price net of pack-house costs averaged over all classes used in the analysis was $530/tonne to $1440/tonne gross.”
The report said trees in the field experiment started producing in the third year after planting and achieved modest marketable yields of 0.15, 3.05 and 7.48 tonnes/ha, respectively for plantings of 1481, 2222, and 4444 trees/ha.
“Production is expected to increase rapidly to reach a maximum in year six or seven,” the report said.
source: weeklytimesnow.com.au
