Tokyo (SCCIJ) – The perfect pear does exist. It’s Swiss, called Fred and the culmination of an 18-year breeding program carried out by researchers at Agroscope, Switzerland’s center of excellence for agricultural research. At the heart of the process: the desire to produce the ideal pear to satisfy growers, sellers and buyers alike.
The new type of pear in its full glory (© Michael Weber)
More than sweet
The story begins in the early 2000s: Charly Rapillard, an agronomist at Agroscope’s research center in Conthey (canton of Valais), crossed different varieties of pear with the goal of creating a shrub resistant to fireblight, a disease that affects fruit trees in particular. One of these experiments crossed the Canadian Harrow Sweet – a delicious variety tolerant to fire blight – with the Dutch Verdi, an attractive-looking red pear with a long shelf life.
When Danilo Christen took up the reins of Rapillard’s work a few years later, he was first and foremost intrigued by the results of this Harrow Sweet – Verdi crossbreeding. The rather firm flesh and size of the pear were not typical, but the researcher recognized its huge commercial potential. In fact, Christen had discerned that certain consumers enjoy munching on fruit like apples on the go, rather than eating them after dinner at the table.
The Fred pear, which was juicy but didn’t run, seemed very suitable for people with this type of eating habit. The trees also grew quickly, which meant that the pears could be picked earlier and would have longer shelf lives. All of which made Fred the perfect pear, satisfying the growers, sellers and consumers alike.
Fred harvest in Evionnaz and Saxon (canton of Valais) (© Sedrik Nemeth)
Penetrating the market
“For a selection process to succeed you need know-how, intuition and good luck,” says Christen, a winning combination that clearly got the agronomist to try his luck in 2009 with the ‘CH201’, the Harrow Sweet – Verdi hybrid variety now branded Fred®. With its easy-to-cultivate trees, two-tone color and sweet, slightly acidic flavor, Fred® has something for everyone.
And that’s why the CH201 genotype is being sent all over the world, with 20 other front-runners chosen by the researchers, to be put to the test in a variety of terrains – French, Moroccan, even Chilean. “It’s very much a team effort”, Christen remarks. Agronomists, examiners, tree growers – a total of 125 partners in Switzerland and abroad will have contributed their know-how and expertise to creating the perfect pear.
A Fred pear plantation in Switzerland (© Sedrik Nemeth).
Going for global appeal
After being registered as a trademark, Fred still has to cross the final stage: marketing. In the country of William Tell, where the apple is the most popular fruit, this may be a challenge. But Michael Weber who heads VariCom, a company that seeks to put fruits developed by Agroscope on the market, isn’t worried. For him, the innovative character of Fred® is a welcome change to the traditional assortment of pears – Bosc, Williams, Conference and Louise Bonne – which currently dominate the Swiss market and were bred back in the 18th and 19th centuries.
“The idea is to create a global variety rather than a niche market so that as many people as possible can benefit from this superfruit, which has the ability to win back consumers who are put off by pears being ‘too complicated'”, adds Christen. This ambitious project is being put into practice for the foreseeable future via hundreds of hectares of trees in France and Belgium. The fruit of an 18-year process combining perseverance and know-how, Switzerland now has its new pear – which it intends to use to revolutionize the global market, to the delight of the world’s tree growers, fruit sellers and discerning consumers.
Text: House of Switzerland
