One of New Zealand's most exciting new apple varieties is on its way overseas to test consumer reaction in key markets.
Scifresh, or T273, is one of a series of braeburn-royal gala crosses bred by HortResearch scientists at Havelock North.
About 1000 cartons of scifresh will be sampled by buyers in Britain,
Europe, the United States and Asia.
Scifresh is striped red with a lemon/green background, and is described by plant breeders as crisp and juicy. One of its most important attributes is that it keeps well and still tastes like a fresh apple after several months in storage.
HortResearch scientists have spent this season working on tree management to produce fruit intended for specific markets.
Post-harvest scientists are working on handling and storage from tree to market.
Taste panels have indicated that scifresh has high commercial potential because of its quality appearance, texture and flavour.
HortResearch scientist Alan White, who led the development team, said it had taken a few years to get enough trees planted to get accurate indications of the qualities of the new apple.
"But the work we have done so far shows it is not too difficult to grow, and the storage characteristics have always looked good," he said.
Post-harvest physiologist Paul Brookfield said new fruit needed more than market demand - it had to achieve consistent quality in sufficient volume to be profitable.
Enza business development manager Tim Allen said this year's scifresh exports would mostly be used to evaluate how it should be positioned in the market.
Enza holds the marketing licence for scifresh and has a commercial name in mind for the new apple.
"There are still some challenges with the apple," Mr Allen said.
"One of the comments we get is that it looks similar to braeburn, one of its parents, so that is something we will have to deal with.
"But it certainly has potential and we are excited by it. This year we will be using most of the 1000 cartons exported to help position it in the market."
Only small quantities of the new variety will be available for export over the next two years
In three years, an estimated 20,000 cartons will be available, and quantities will build up after that.
- NZPA
