At the Prevar Apple Field Days in 2013, the company announced that the PremA34 apple cultivar, that had been tested for a number of years, would not be commercially released by Prevar in New Zealand. This was a considered to be a disappointing outcome for the industry as the cultivar held good commercial prospects for Asian markets.

PremA34 suffers from a high incidence of mouldy core and core rot that is developed after storage. Application of specific fungicides in spray trials at blossom that aimed to reduce these disorders to acceptable levels were not successful. Furthermore, there were two types of browning observed in storage and an indication of biennial bearing susceptibility. These flaws only became apparent when Stage 3 testing was underway on Plant & Food Research and commercial orchard test sites.

Trials underway in other territories have so far not shown any of the symptoms observed in New Zealand. However, such trials are at a relative early stage and more work will be required over the next few years.

Despite the disappointing trial outcomes in New Zealand, Prevar has continued to receive interest to licence PremA34 from growers in other parts of the world. Although PremA34 has yet to be tested in Australia Prevar is now looking to progress the commercialisation of this variety and wishes to receive licencing proposals from interested growers by 31 July 2016.

Any Australian grower who would like further information about this cultivar should contact Snow Hardy directly. A New Product Guide is available upon request that summarises NZ testing.