Miniature Fruits

[Anchor Lead]

Today's fruit lovers have a wider selection of miniature fruits to choose from. Bite-size apples and pears that don't need peeling are being developed to cater to consumer preferences.

[Pkg]

These apples about the size of a ping pong ball are a perfect bite-size snack. There are even apples that look exactly like the cherries used in cake decorations. The Hongno variety now sold in markets weighs between 300 and 400 grams, but these new apple varieties weight only around 50 grams each. There are pears bred to have thin skin so that they can be eaten whole, peels and all. These fruit varieties have been developed by the Rural Development Administration to cater to consumer preferences.

[Soundbite] Kim Yun-gyeong(Researcher, RDA) : "Consumers tend to buy fruits depending on their flavors, size, and safety. So smaller fruits will be in more demand than larger ones."

As the number of one-person households is on the rise, consumers tend to prefer mini fruits over larger ones for easier and frugal consumption.

[Soundbite] Park Jeong-ae(Suwon Resident) : "My children don't like fruits much, so I tend to buy smaller ones just enough for a single consumption."

The RDA developed four miniaturized apple varieties and eight pear varieties, which are being grown on 6 million square meters of land nationwide. The RDA also plans to distribute the saplings of these new fruit varieties to farmers and expand their cultivation areas so that the miniaturized fruits can be provided in school lunches.