TORONTO - Canada's newest fruit has a name.

HW614, as it was known while in development over the past 35 years is the latest member of the plentiful pear family to be named - and will bear the freshly minted moniker, Harovin Sundown.

The Sundown is the first pear variety introduced in Canada since 2002 when the Harrow Gold and Harrow Crisp moved up in the world of pear breeding from numbered varieties to named fruit.

More than half of the 11,000 votes cast in Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's online contest were in favour of the name Sundown. Bounty, Prime, Pride and Gaia - for the Greek Goddess of Earth, also made the short list.

But pear breeder David Hunter said Sundown is fitting because the fruit ripens at the end of the season.

"This fruit has a wow factor," said Hunter who oversaw the pear project. "When it ripens, the red blush on the green fruit changes to an orangy-red, sort of like what you see in the evening sky."

Pear breeding is a slow process and a new variety can take an average of 25 years to develop because seedlings can take up to a decade before they bear fruit. Sundown took more than 35 years of patience before it was a "candidate for naming," Hunter said.

The smooth-skinned pear is a cross between the popular Bartlett and another U.S. variety. Oval in shape, the fruit is firm, tasting "juicy and sweet," but more important, said Hunter, it has improved resistance to fire blight, a bacterial disease that can "devastate" pear trees.

Though Sundown won't be a major player in the pear market for at least 10 years, it eventually will help farmers expand their harvesting and marketing season because the fruit can be stored for more than six months, Hunter said.

Sundown will be available in some local farmers markets as early as the fall.

There are more than 5,000 pear varieties in the world but the most common pears in Canada, grown in Ontario, British Columbia and Nova Scotia, are the Bartlett, Flemish Beauty, Anjou, Bosc and Clapp's Favourite.

The new pear's name is proceeded by Harovin in reference to where the fruit was first breed in Harrow, Ont. Vin is for the Vineland Station in the Niagara area where the breeding program, one of only several pear breeding programs in North America, was move in 1995.

Since a federal pear-breeding program began in 1962, scientists have introduced the Harrow Delight, Harvest Queen, Harrow Sweet and Harrow Crisp.

Hunter said another new pear might be introduced either this year or next. The "new candidate" has been in development for 15 years but still needs more market research to see whether customers will buy it because the pears don't ripen evenly.

According to Agriculture Canada, China supplies more than 50 per cent of the world's pears while Canada produces less than one per cent.