New Hybrid Fruit Coming

New Hybrid Fruit Coming. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

There have been some very interesting hybrid fruits over the years. Some more novelty than practical but a new cherry-plum hybrid is making waves according to Alan Taylor, marketing director for Brandt 's Fruit Trees.

TAYLOR: It has the characteristics of both a cherry and a plum although if you see it I think the cherry part is much more dominant in terms of the shape of it and it’s certainly larger than a normal cherry. It has a little shorter stem than a cherry.

But Taylor says to not stand in the store waiting to see the fruit anytime soon.

TAYLOR: It takes a while to get it to the market. We like to kid around saying we are doing these kinds of things for our children and our grandchildren. In this case there’ll probably be fruit in the UK available as early as January of next year but for the United States where Brandt’s has the rights it’s probably going to be 5 to maybe even 8 years before commercial volumes are grown here.

That does not mean that we won’t see import product on the supermarket shelves in the near future.

TAYLOR: It has a great flavor which is kind of hard to describe because it’s a combination of cherry and plum but I think it favors the cherry part. It’s also been tested and has a very substantial levels of betacarotene which is something that is very good for all of us.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.