Pear
is one of the fruits with the longest history of harvesting and utilization in my country, and enjoys the reputation of "the ancestor of all fruits".
has a transcendent status in the fruit world from ancient times to the present.
Pears are a fruit that Chinese people are very familiar with, but some friends may not know that pears are divided into two categories (referring to the main cultivated species) . One is the "Oriental pear" originating in my country, also called "Asian pear". Domestic pear strains such as Qiuzi pear , sand pear , white pear on the domestic market all belong to the "Oriental pear" species.
The second one is the Western pear , also known as "Western pear", which is native to the European Caucasus region (accurately, the cultivated species should originate there) . The red pear and Tsingtao pear are all Western pear species.
Just as Chinese people love to eat Chinese pears, Western pears are also very popular and respected in European and American countries. However, unlike other "foreign fruits" in our country's fruit market, the situation of Western pears has always been tepid.
Many consumers mistakenly believe that Western pears have only appeared in the domestic fruit market in the past ten years. In fact, this is not the case. Western pear varieties have been introduced in my country more than a hundred years ago (Chinese Western pears were cultivated as early as 1871, and were introduced to Yantai, Shandong by American missionaries, and were later cultivated in Weihai, and parts of Liaoning) .
It is indeed tepid all the time, not because the contact time is short and it has not yet reached the stage of fire.
Today I will talk to you about the Western pear, its origin and spread, its shape and taste characteristics, and why it has become a "foreign fruit" that is "not popular".
Facing each other in the east and west, they have the same origin.
The Western pear and the Oriental pear are both Rosaceae Pyrus plants. Although they are two different species in botany, although one is native to my country and the other is native to Europe, they are of the same origin and have the same ancestral plant.
Pyrus plants first originated in southwest my country. According to botanists, the original species of pear have been distributed in southwest my country at least in the Tertiary Period (65 million years ago - 2.6 million years ago).
In the long period of time that followed, the original population of pears began to "migrate" outwards and gradually differentiated into many plant species.
Among the pears that "migrated" to the northeast, the ancestors of the current "Oriental pear" cultivars appeared. Among the pears that migrated to the northwest, the ancestors of the current Western pear cultivars appeared in the European Caucasus.
Chinese scientists have found that the time when Pyrus plants differentiated into Eastern pear and Western pear should be between 6.6 and 3.3 million years ago.
The early situations of Western pears in Europe and Eastern pears in my country were very different, although Europeans also have a long history of eating and planting Western pears.
However, in the long history of feeding and utilization, Western pears cannot be accurately regarded as a fruit. This is because before the 16th century, whether wild or cultivated, the fruits of Western pears were very hard when mature and could not be softened later like the current Western pear varieties, so they could only be eaten after being steamed.
It was not until the 16th century that pear varieties similar to the current ones appeared, became a real fruit, and began to spread widely. It has become the main pear variety in Europe, America, Oceania , and southern Africa.
Although Western pears originated in Europe, the largest area of Western pear planting is currently in the United States. The earliest Western pear varieties introduced in my country were also introduced from the United States.
Today, Western pears have become an important part of the world's pear fruit trade, and are deeply loved by consumers in European and American countries. After the 21st century, my country also began to import Western pears on a large scale.
The difference between Western pears and Oriental pears is not only their appearance.
Friends who have seen Western pears know that the appearance of Western pears is quite different from the Oriental pear varieties native to my country.
Domestic pears are generally oval or oval in shape, relatively "round", and mostly yellow-green or green in color; while Western pears are more "slender" in shape, and in straightforward terms have a "big belly" appearance. Early Chinese consumers also called them "banana pears". In terms of color, Western pears can be divided into green, yellow-green and red.
In addition to appearance, the biggest difference between Western pears and Oriental pears is their texture and taste.
The outstanding characteristics of our domestic pears are crisp texture, sweet taste and rich juice. Some varieties with more stone cells and have a slag-like feel, while those with less stone cells have a weaker slag-like feel.
Although the content of stone cells in Western pears is less than Oriental pears (less protruding) , most varieties are very hard and have very low sweetness when eaten directly after being harvested . They need to be left for a while, and the best eating period is after the flesh softens. They taste soft and waxy and have a much richer aroma than Oriental pears.
The reason for this is simply that the Western pear is a climacteric fruit like the Oriental pear, and its fruit ripening is affected by ethylene . However, before the Western pear is harvested, its endogenous ethylene secretion does not start (Oriental pear's endogenous ethylene secretion has already started on the tree) . After harvesting, the ethylene that promotes fruit ripening will be secreted in large amounts.
American pear pulp will undergo qualitative changes after endogenous ethylene is activated. The starch contained in it will be converted into glucose and fructose . The original colloid will be converted into soluble colloid. The content of volatile aromatic substances and vitamins and other nutrients will be significantly increased, which is reflected in the taste and becomes soft, waxy and sweet.
Why don’t American pears become popular?
Looking at it objectively, the shape of the Western pear fruit is unique, and the taste is not bad. For Chinese consumers who are very tolerant of fruits, why have Western pears not become popular after more than a hundred years?
I think there are several reasons:
First of all, under the influence of Oriental pears for more than 3,000 years, Chinese consumers are accustomed to domestic pears that can be eaten after harvesting, are crisp, sweet, and rich in juice. Although Western pears are beautiful, it will take a long time for domestic consumers to accept the soft and waxy Western pears that need to be placed. After all, Chinese consumers have not liked soft and waxy fruits since ancient times.
Secondly, the promotion of popular science is not enough. The American pear has entered our country both as a plant species and as a commodity for a long time. However, when promoting it, most people talk about how healthy and nutritious it is.
Due to such promotion and publicity, many consumers are not even sure about the most basic eating methods. Many consumers just gnawed the pear when they first tasted it. You can imagine what kind of impression the hard and not sweet pear will give consumers.
Furthermore, the lack of "popularity" is to a certain extent an "illusion" due to the huge volume of Oriental pears in the domestic consumer market. In fact, from a global perspective, the planting area of Western pears in my country is not small. The current annual output is about 200,000 tons, and a certain amount of Western pears are imported from European and American countries every year. According to foreign data, my country has become the fifth Atlantic pear consumer in the world.
But the "big" of Western pears is "small" in front of Eastern pears. my country's pear production in 2021 is about 18.8759 million tons, which means that Western pears only account for about 1%.
That’s why we feel that Western pears have not become “popular” in the domestic fruit market.
Western pears have certain development prospects
The article finally talks about my views on the development prospects of Western pears in the domestic market. I personally feel that Western pears have certain development prospects under the background of the domestic pear industry.
After all, Western pears are "good-looking" and "tasty", which are rare features among the huge Oriental pears.
In fact, there is another direction, which is to use Western pears and Oriental pears to cross-breed , thereby changing the structure of my country's pear planting industry and promoting the development of my country's pear industry.
But we still have to remind our farmer friends that "promising development" does not mean making money by planting.
As far as I know, friends who are engaged in domestic pear cultivation have profits and losses, so if you want to develop planting, you must not be blind.
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