A 'reverse strawberry' has been released in Australia, with white-coloured flesh and red seeds.

Called a pineberry, the variety was developed in Europe after white strawberries, which occur naturally in southern America, were imported to Europe and cross-bred there.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 4 minutes 6 seconds 4 m 6 s Australian importer Phillip Neilsen from United Nurseries discusses 'reverse strawberry' ( Nikolai Beilharz ) Download 1.9 MB

Australian importer Phillip Neilsen from United Nurseries said it was the first the time the fruit had been brought into Australia.

"They are still a strawberry, [but] you have a very subtle taste at the beginning of citrus or pineapple, and it finishes off with the classic strawberry flavour," Mr Neilsen said.

The importation process has taken four years to meet government quarantine and biosecurity requirements.

Mr Neilsen has imported the fruit from Holland and said initially, their target market would be the backyard grower.

"The original thought pattern was just to target the public in respect to retail [nurseries]," he said.

"But what we saw over in Europe is that it is a commercial variety as well.

"You have to start somewhere, so we thought we'd start with retail and then work our way back down the other chain."

Mr Neilsen said questions over whether the fruit was genetically modified had been raised.

"We have been asked about that at some of the product launches, but we can honestly say that they are normally bred strawberries," he said.

"They use a selection breeding criteria, and basically they pick out a certain amount of fruit that fits those criteria.

"It's taken them many years to develop them."

Mr Neilsen's nursery has also previously imported strawberries tasting like bubblegum and raspberries.