The Guru and Battler pear are helping Australian pear growers shift fruit affected by hailstorms in a new campaign developed by Apple & Pear Australia (APAL).
Hailstorms hit Australia’s key growing region in Victoria, the Goulburn Valley, late last year, hitting some pear orchards and leaving fruit damaged.
As a result, APAL has developed a campaign to get the less-than-perfect fruit selling by repositioning the pears as ‘Hailstorm Heroes’.
And now, retailers are on board with the campaign as well, said Olivia Tait, APAL’s market development manager.
Woolworths has said it will sell the hailstorm-damaged pears as part of its ‘Odd Bunch’ fruit from May, while APAL is in preliminary discussions with Aldi and IGA to adjust their specifications for pears.
“We don’t want to incur any additional costs to the industry, so the idea is to clear this hailstorm-affected fruit as quickly as possible to limit storage costs,” Tait told Fruitnet. “Ideally, the fruit will sell over a four to eight week window to get retailers selling this fruit, and at the same time they will have unaffected pears on shelves, though sold in a different format.”
The Hailstorm Heroes include Battler pear, who survived the hailstorms, and Guru pear, who emphasises that “real goodness lies within”.
From mid-year these Hailstorm Heroes will be joined by more characters.
The broader campaign for pears is still being finalised, but Tait said the campaign will feature six pear characters as part of the broad ‘Big pear family’ who will highlight key pillars of the campaign – from health and nutrition to the versatility of pears. Product attributes will also play a role, as well as education on the best ways to mature pears.
APAL is working closely with grower-owned body Horticulture Innovation Australia on this campaign, using apple and pear industry levy funds from growers which are matched by the Australian government.
