Three new bean varieties entered the PGRO pulse Recommended Lists this year and their promising export potential could offer growers a useful premium, said principal technical officer, Steve Belcher.

“All three are pale hilum and pale-skinned varieties, which means they will be ideal for the human consumption export market.”

Most exciting were high-yielding spring varieties Pyramid from Nickerson and Fury from LS Plant Breeding, both of which began their first year of provisional recommendation. They outperformed market-leading Fuego, also from Nickerson, but that variety continued to be the only fully recommended pale hilum spring bean, he said.

“Pyramid achieved the highest yield with a seven-year average yield of 106, but Fuego is still the dominant variety,” said Mr Belcher. “It’s very popular and is likely to stick around a bit longer.”

Winter variety Husky from KWS gained provisional recommendation, matching market leader Wizard for yield, said Mr Belcher. “It is a long-strawed variety, similar to Clipper, but standing ability is not as good.”

The biggest movement in pea varieties was in the large blue category. Top-yielding Crakerjack, from Dalton gained full recommendation which boasted a five-year mean of 104, two points ahead of market leader Prophet. “It has long straw, good standing ability and moderate to good downy mildew resistance,” said Mr Belcher.

Three new varieties, Daytona, Bluestar and Madras, were added to the provisional list, replacing outclassed varieties Venture and long-standing favourite Nitouche which bowed out after 10 appearances. “There is very little between them, but Daytona has the edge on yield,” he said.

Maple pea variety Mantra also gained provisional recommendation and promised to be very high yielding for its class, he noted.

There were no new additions in the Marrowfat market and for the second year running, no new white-seeded peas entered the list, he noted. “There is a very small market for white-seeded peas, but we do have two new varieties, Franklin and Salamanca, coming through from National Listing next year.”