A new variety of fruit developed in New Zealand that looks and tastes like an apple, but is actually a pear, will feature in Marks Spencer stores in Britain this week.
MS describes the papple as one of the most exciting new varieties of fruit it has seen in years.
The papple does not have a formal brand name yet, but stems from a Plant Food Research programme to breed new types of pears.
Prevar, a joint venture set up to commercialise new pipfruit cultivars, says there will be others to follow.
But domestic consumers will have to wait a while to find out. Only a small volume of the new pear has been produced so far and the entire output is being exported to British and Asian markets.
