The Papple is actually a pear.
The Papple is actually a pear.

“A Papple a Day Keeps the Doctor…Baffled.” That’s one of the marketing slogans for a new fruit variety developed in New Zealand.

Why is the doctor baffled? Because the variety, which looks every bit like an apple, is not an apple at all. It is actually a hybrid of European and Asian pears. The fruit is round with a red-orange blush over a yellow background. It is crunchy and juicy, like an Asian pear, but has the more robust flavor of a European pear. It ripens on the tree but has a long shelf life and stores well.

The Papple (whose cultivar name is Prem109) was bred by Plant and Food Research in New Zealand, where it is being grown. It is being commercialized by the joint venture company Prevar Limited, which licensed the global marketing rights to the Associated International Group of Nurseries.

In turn, AIGN has licensed use of the Papple trademark in the United Kingdom to Worldwide Fruit, an international fruit marketing and distribution company that supplies apples and pears to major U.K. retailers. Worldwide Fruit imports New Zealand Papples and plans to plant 15,000 Papple trees in the United Kingdom within the next two years.

Worldwide Fruit is owned by Fruition Producer Organisation and Enzafruit New Zealand (UK), Ltd.