New Zealand's papple on way to Singapore
The pear is new and, as such, has not yet received a name. The "papple" nickname stems from the UK press. The pears were developed by state-owned Plant and Food Research and are grown in Motueka.
The pears will not be widely sold in New Zealand any time soon, as they fetch too great a price on the export markets.
People at a taste testing in Wellington have responded well to the flavours of the pear, but time and again people said they felt that the fruit was too expensive to make it a regular purchase.
Helen Lomas liked the taste and would buy one if it was the same price as a normal apple.
"It's actually really good - really, really good.''
Matt Thorn of sole exporter NZ Direct, which supplied APNZ with pears for the taste test, said they sold themselves because of their unique shape and colour but it had been difficult to get them onto shelves while a trademark name was still being settled on.
"That's probably the biggest problem at the moment, but once it's on the shelf I think the product is completely different from anything else.''
In the meantime retailers in Singapore are selling it as the "Sunshine Pear."
Mr Thorn said he liked the name "papple.''
"I think it's quite good. They're creating a circus about a product that's got no name, that looks quite good. It's actually quite clever, I think.''
He said his company had shipped 20 tonnes of the fruit this season, 70% of which went to Asia and the remainder to the UK.
The retail price in Singapore has not yet been set, but Mr Thorn hopes that it will fetch similar prices to those sold in the UK.
Prevar chief executive Brett Ennis - whose company licenses the rights to grow, market and sell the PremP109 pear variety (as the Papple is currently known officially) - said the company hoped to settle on a trademark name for the variety soon.
It was also hoping to develop a global trademark for the whole hybrid pear category, of which the so-called "papple'' was just one variety.
Source: nzherald.co.nz
