Piqa Boo help pears play catch-up

Read: A move to increase the acreage and popularity of pears is gaining momentum.

It’s burnished, dark red in colour and is appealing visually, but also meets the good taste test. 

Paul Paynter – director and group general manager of large, Hawkes Bay orchard operation, Johnny Appleseed – is one of many orchardists who are growing these new varieties of pears with 10,000 trees grafted and producing fruit.

The new Piqa Boo fruit has known appeal in Asian markets where high-quality fruit such as this is seen as being up to the standard of ‘gift fruit’ – in other words of a box with a single or multiple fruit in it would be seen as a very acceptable present to give to a friend. 

Paynter’s views about the market are echoed by Mike Van Workum, the supply manager for Fern Ridge Fresh – an apple and pear marketing company. Van Workum says gift packs are becoming more common in Asia – especially Japan and the Piqa series of pears fits neatly into this market niche.

He says the pear industry in NZ has shrunk and there are only a small number of orchardists growing pears

“The Piqa Boo has created a good opportunity to diversify their existing pear operations into something that is focused on the Asian customer,” Van Workum told Hort News. 

“You have a bright red piqa boo pear – which has a watery texture, it’s got a lot of flavour and suits an Asian type eating habit. It’s going to change the approach of where we are going to market to and it’s different time frame.” 

The success of the Piqa brand is due to the role of an organisation called Prevar, which was set up after deregulation of the industry to manage the breeding of new apple and pear varieties and to hold the intellectual property (IP) rights. 

Its two major shareholders are Apple and Pears NZ and Plant and Food Research – with Apple and Pears Australia also involved. Piqa is what is known as the family brand and each specific variety has its own name. So Piqa Boo is the name of the new pear that’s now on the market.

Prevar is essentially an IP company and it acts as the liaison organisation between Plant and Food and the industry. Chief executive Brett Ennis says funding for Prevar comes from the two shareholders – until such time it becomes financially self-sufficient from IP-use royalties, which is forecast to happen in the next 2-3 years.

Breeding new varieties of any fruit is a lengthy process – somewhere between 15 and 20 years from original concept to final commercialisation. The breeding of new interspecific pear varieties was started by Dr Alan White of Plant and Food back in the 1980s.

For Ennis, and the growers and marketing people, the challenge is trying to anticipate consumers’ trends – 20 years out.

He accepts that pears as a fruit have been in the doldrums, but believes with the new Piqa series of varieties, the popularity of the fruit can be revived