The pear industry is seeking a new star to promote heavily, create excitement, boost consumption and lift prices for growers.

“We’d love to have something shiny and new to talk about,” said Jeff Correa, Pear Bureau Northwest director of international marketing.

Correa said contenders emerging from Northwest orchards include Happi from Stemilt Growers of Wenatchee, Wash.; Mardis Gras from Domex Superfresh Growers, headquartered in Yakima, Wash.; and Gem, a non-proprietary fruit grown primarily by Diamond Fruit Growers, a cooperative in Oregon’s Hood River Valley.

But for a new variety to become a top choice for consumers could take a decade or longer, experts say.

Late bloomers, false starts

Pear trees take 7 to 11 years to reach maturity, and it’s risky for growers to plant acres of an untested fruit while removing blocks of proven varieties.

“The old saying is plant pears for your heirs,” said Mac Riggan, marketing director for Chelan Fresh, a major Washington grower.

False starts have also made growers hesitant. “We’ve struck out so many times,” said Robert Wymore, Diamond president and CEO.

Twenty years ago, the Concorde pear seemed to be an emerging star, but orchards were hammered by fire blight, a bacteria that kills apple and pear trees. In the Hood River Valley, Concorde also russeted heavily, making the fruit’s skin turn brown.

Growers’ reluctance to take a gamble has led to some orchards relying on huge trees 80 to 100 years old despite their decreasing production and less consistency, Wymore said.

Comparing apples and…

Apples grow at warp speed compared to pears, taking three to five years to reach reliable production.

As a result, there’s a wide variety of new apples in supermarkets, including Washington State University’s Cosmic Crisp, launched in 2019.

More are on the way. WA 64, WSU’s newest apple variety, could land in stores in five years bearing a new name.

The pear industry lacks marketing juice in comparison. “We’ve just not had much innovation in pears. Cherries and grapes also have new varieties,” Riggan said.

The top varieties of pears have been the same for decades — Green Anjou, Bartlett, Bosc and Red Anjou — and they’ll remain on top for years.

Ideal pear characteristics

Growers are looking for several factors in a new pear variety, said Christopher Gottschalk, a research geneticist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service Appalachian Fruit Research Station in Kearneysville, W.Va. Those include improved disease resistance, lower cost of production and durability for packing and transport, as well as storage potential.

But consumer preferences will ultimately determine success.

“What consumers will purchase, what consumers will accept, those still are moving targets,” Gottschalk said.

A flavorful pear with an attractive appearance is a starting point, he said.

Gottschalk’s predecessor, horticulturalist Richard Bell, championed Gem and led to its joint release in 2013 by the USDA, Oregon State University, Michigan State University and Clemson University.

None of the USDA’s 10 pear releases, dating back more than a century, has been grown to a significant level, Gottschalk said.

“If Gem is going to be the one to break through, that’s fantastic,” he said.

Predicting how markets will react to new products is difficult, however. “Something else we have in the pipeline could have just as big an impact or more,” Gottschalk added.

Trusty and reliable

Pears aren’t exciting for growers, and that’s the point, said Ashley Thompson of the Oregon State University Extension Service.

She works with growers in Hood River and Wasco counties, and said pears are a relatively safe bet in agriculture, an industry rife with risks ranging from the weather to labor costs.

Thompson recently visited the Netherlands to try dozens of European pears.

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“They have the same problem we do and are looking for a new variety,” she said.

Thompson wanted to bring back germplasm from only two or three varieties.

Many European pears tasted off or looked odd, either crooked or had russeting. The latter is a characteristic of Domex Superfresh’s Mardi Gras, a pear traced back to a variety called Conference, which accounts for 53% of production in the European Union.

“Conference is not a visually appealing pear,” Thompson said.

Domex Superfresh Growers and Stemilt Growers didn’t respond to interview requests.

Color and symmetry

Thompson believes American consumers want fruit that’s uniform in symmetry and color.

Correa, of the Pear Bureau, said a new variety with red skin could be a bonus, and a pink blush is more popular in export markets.

American consumers aren’t used to red pears, though.

Red Anjou has been challenging to promote and tends to end up brown, which is less attractive, Thompson said. Other red pears suffer from stem punctures.

Gem might be a winner based on looks, as it doesn’t russet and has some blush over yellow.

The variety, a cross of Bartlett, Comice and Seckel, also doesn’t turn brown when sliced.

A ripening symbol

Color plays another role with some pears. The Bartlett, for example, changes hue when ripe, and that’s helped its popularity.

“That eliminates the guesswork by consumers. Everything else, we have to check the neck,” Correa said.

Gottschalk said pears are difficult for many consumers because they generally need ripening after purchase and there’s a lack of consistency in grocery stores.

The Happi turns from green to yellow when it’s ripe and soft, and that could provide a big advantage.

“Consumers don’t want to think too much, so that kind of stuff triggers them. They’ll buy it,” said Riggan, of Chelan Fresh.

Eating versatility

Happi and Gem are geared toward fire blight resistance, but they also possess eating versatility.

Some markets prefer pears more like apples, with crunch and a hint of sugar, while others like a soft, sweet and juicy fruit.

“If you can cater to both audiences you have greater consumer acceptance,” Correa said.

“A lot of export markets, there’s a movement for more of this crunchy, crisper eating experience,” he added. Roughly 30% of pear production is exported.

Gem also can keep well in cold storage until March and if packers perfect controlled atmosphere conditions, the pear could be stored until summer, said Wymore, the Diamond president.

Walls of fruit

Another factor that would encourage replanting is finding good dwarfing rootstock that’s cold hardy.

“We don’t have anything that’s high density that we can make into nice two-dimensional canopies,” Thompson said.

Green walls have been adopted by many apple growers to make fruit easier to pick, but they are also a step toward using robotic harvesters.

Robotic harvest is seen as inevitable for the tree fruit industry as wages increase and labor availability decreases.

If WSU releases dwarfing rootstock from its breeding program, that could be a game-changer, Gottschalk said.

In the meantime, forward-thinking pear growers are moving toward tightly planted and efficient orchards.

Wymore said Gem trees can be grown close together to create a compact plot that’s easier to harvest, takes less inputs and less water and produces a higher yield per acre.

Only part of the solution

Lesley Tamura, president of Tamura Orchards, a Diamond member in Odell, Ore., said a new pear variety was only part of the solution, along with more marketing and better consumer education.

Her family grows five varieties of pears on their 42 acres.

“I personally think the old classics do well,” said Tamura, chairwoman of Columbia Gorge Fruit Growers, which includes 440 farmers and 20 shippers in Oregon and Washington.

She’s leery of Gem because the market isn’t proven and other new pears have fizzled.

Tamura said guides for eating pears should be posted in stores.

Even in farm country, some consumers eat unripe pears and have poor experiences.

Wymore said that the pear industry has been trying to educate consumers for decades without luck, so a pear that can be eaten fresh might be more of an answer.

Rights and royalties

Randy Kiyokawa, owner of Kiyokawa Family Orchards in Parkdale, Ore., thought a new star pear variety would be great under certain circumstances.

“Are the rights and royalties going to be bought up and is the average grower going to be excluded?” he asked.

His farm grows more than 12 varieties of European pears and 12 varieties of Asian pears.

Kiyokawa has 300 Gem trees and said he’ll plant 1,000 more next season.

If a different star pear emerged, Kiyokawa said he’d buy 10 trees to see if they’d grow well in the higher elevation and cooler climate of the upper Hood River Valley. Some pears and apples thrive there, while others prefer different climates.

Rooting for the competition

Even with potential pitfalls and previous pear failures, Wymore remains hopeful about Gem. “This one seems better,” he said.

Diamond Fruit Growers should pick 1,100 Gem bins this season. Each bin is about 1,150 pounds.

“We figure we’ll have 5,000 bins of Gem in the next three to four years,” Wymore said.

Still, that makes Gem a minor player. Diamond harvests 50,000 bins of Green Anjou pears per year.

Gem might be hard to find on the West Coast, despite its growing popularity.

That’s because 85% of Diamond’s Gem harvest goes to Publix, which has about 1,400 grocery stores in the southeastern U.S.

Riggan hasn’t tried all the new pears, but he’s hoping they’re all hits — even if Chelan Fresh never grows them.

“I’m rooting for my competition,” Riggan said, adding that driving excitement for pears benefits all growers.

He hopes the industry also reaches out to younger generations on social media.

“I think there’s a huge amount of upside for the pear category. They’re a wonderful fruit,” Riggan said.