03/20/08 Pear Exports

Pear Exports. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Last years pear crop is still doing well in the export market and with several months to go yet, volumes continue to increase. Jeff Correa is the export manager with Pear Bureau NW. CORREA: Overall we are up 36% over last year. In terms of numbers, it's about 5.3 million boxes through mid-March. The reasons for this, the weak dollar has really helped our exports. It makes us relatively less expensive compared to other imported items and right now it looks like we're on pace to set another record export value year. Correa says that last year was a record year at 134-million and they appear to be on pace to surpass 140-million this year. He feels the reason is good pricing. CORREA: Overall pricing in the industry has been strong and you look about 5 or 6 years ago we were selling on an average price per box export market maybe $14 per box and now we're up around $18 per box. The volume has come down but we're really maximizing opportunities for export value now. What does that translate to on a dollar amont? CORREA: Through January we're already at $116 million compared to last season where we were at $93 million dollars were at 116 so I think we'll easily pass $140 million because we still have February, March, April, May and even into June shipments Supplies were still good of green and red D'Anjou and Bosc pears. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.