The new quality of Fred pear also arrives in Italy. Invented in French-speaking Switzerland, already produced in France and Belgium, Fred is the result of a nearly twenty years of experimentation conducted by the Swiss research center Agroscope in Conthey: born from the cross between the Canadian "harrow sweet" variety (famous for being resistant to bacteria but not storable for long) and the Dutch "green" variety (in turn descending from another famous Swiss variety, the "louise bonne"): the result is a pear with a generous shape, unusually two-colored (red-green), easy to grow and above all with more frequent production than traditional qualities. Usually a pear tree produces fruit 5 years after planting, after which the harvest takes place every other year. Fred, on the other hand, is able to bear fruit after two years and produce regularly, every year, with the harvest fixed at the end of September, the possibility of keeping the pear for a month at room temperature and then for the rest of the time - until the next harvest, with unprecedented continuity - in special refrigerators with an artificial atmosphere (2% oxygen and 1% CO2). How to make the producers of a country, Switzerland, happy, where the best-selling varieties on the market have always been produced, and which in turn is a devourer of pears, albeit less than in the past: twenty years ago, a Swiss ate 6 kg of pears a year, today about half.
“If the market has dropped, it is precisely because there was a lack of something new – explains Danilo Christen, one of the inventors of Fred -. This, on the other hand, is a top-of-the-range pear and above all easy to eat: many people don't eat pears because they consider them inconvenient to eat and because they go bad quickly". Another distinctive trait of the Fred pear, in addition to its experimentation which lasted a good 18 years, is in fact the quality: from the experts it is defined as “crunchy like an apple” but above all juicy at the right point, in order to avoid the "spilling" that we all know and making this product actually more pleasant to eat and keep longer. Between Switzerland, France and Belgium, crops are already extensive enough to attempt the commercial adventure, which a few weeks ago also began in Italy: it is being launched by the Origine Group consortium, exclusive partner of the Swiss company Varicom. “Origine Group has decided to focus on this pear – said the director Alessandro Zampagna – for its organoleptic and aesthetic characteristics, but also because it has excellent shelf life and high productivity. An interesting variety for the entire supply chain, therefore, and we think that our sector needs new varieties with these characteristics. There was immediately a great harmony with Varicom and the French nursery Dalival, which will supply the plants, and we are strongly confident that this collaboration will bring excellent results”.
