This is a final research report from Hort Innovation’s historical archives. Please note that as these reports may date back as far as the 1990s, the content and recommendations within them may be superseded by more recent research.

What was it all about?

The development of new pear varieties was one of the key strategies of the Australian pear industry to revitalise Australian pear production and sales.

The National Pear Breeding Program bred a collection of elite germplasm over the previous 17 years. From this material two selections were under commercial trials in regional Australian production areas and overseas at the time.

This project reported progress with evaluation of the elite germplasm described above. Evaluation may have led to the release of further new pear cultivars providing further international competitive advantage for the Australian pear industry. In doing so, the project may have helped achieve the objective of revitalising the Australian pear industry.

The project was managed by Apple and Pear Australia Limited with contractors, experienced in pear evaluation, conducting day-to-day project operations.

AP10029 was a one year project. Three seasons were needed to complete the evaluation of the germplasm arising from the National Pear Breeding Program. It was recommended that the other two years, needed to complete evaluation of the material from the NPBP, be funded.

The selection ANP-0534 (Dr Jules Guyot x Corellla) showed consistent high quality and productivity attributes over 3 years. It was recommended that this selection be released for commercial evaluation and (if that was successful) commercialisation via Coregeo Australia Photographs of ANP-0534.