09/30/08 Looking Inside the Pear Bureau

Looking Inside the Pear Bureau. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. The pear harvest is underway and it looks like it will be a good one but there is a lot more to a good harvest than the fruit, export market access, labor issues and of course the marketing of the crop. Kevin Moffitt with the Pear Bureau Northwest has been busy keeping up with those issues. MOFFITT: We were also talking to them about some of the child nutrition reauthorizations and trying to increase the purchases of fresh fruit and vegetables for the feeding programs of the USDA. Moffitt spends a lot of time talking to people about pears and showing them the values of great tasting northwest pears. MOFFITT: So next up we've got the big Produce Marketing Association convention coming up in the middle of October. That's a big event with about 17-thousand people. It will be in Orlando this year and we're prepared for that with a good booth and a good team out there. We're going to talk pears and shake a lot of hands. They have been involved with Disney in the past. MOFFITT: We again will have a booth at the Epcot Center and actually since the PMA show is in Orlando it gives us a great opportunity to leverage the booth at Epcot as well. We'll have a press conference there at the Pearville Fair at Epcot. We'll also have some VIP receptions and things playing around the Pearville Fair so we're really leveraging it this year. And of course look for some great tasting pears at your local grocer. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.