Langley greenhouse operator Bevo Agro Inc. (TSX-V:BVO) is getting $200,000 in federal funding to turn the pawpaw into a commercially viable fruit.
The funding comes from the National Research Council of Canada (NSERC). Bevo Agro will contribute another $125,000 in cash and $100,00 in in-kind services.
The money will be used to fund a four-year hybridization project aimed at giving the pawpaw a genetic makeover. The fruit is native to Southern Ontario, the Carolinas and Eastern and Mid-Western U.S.
Leo Benne, president of Bevo Agro, describes the fruit’s flavour as a cross between a mango, papaya and banana.
The problem is not the fruit’s taste, but the fact that it is full of inedible seeds. And although the pawpaw tree will bear fruit in just four years, it has low yields and the fruit has a short shelf life.
Bevo Agro will use hybridization techniques to try to develop a seedless variety. Benne emphasizes that the company will not be using genetic modification. If the company is successful, it will conduct field trials in the Okanagan.
Benne said the pawpaw could be the next kiwi fruit. Prior to being rebranded and vigorously marketed in the 1960s, the kiwi was hardly known outside of Asia.
“The kiwi was a Chinese gooseberry that got developed into the kiwi as we know it today,” Benne said. “Now the kiwi is grown around the world.
“The goal is to make this another item for Canadian orchardists to be planting their orchards with.”
Bevo Agro operates a 40-acre greenhouse operation in Langley that specializes in growing food crop seedlings.
