Pears and the Farm Bill

Pears and the Farm Bill. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

All eyes are on Capital Hill as legislators struggle with a farm bill. Kevin Moffitt, president and CEO of Pear Bureau Northwest.

MOFFITT: Farm bill issues are full steam ahead on Capital Hill right now and for the pears in particular is where the market access program funding, MAP is funded and we get about $3-million dollars a year in the competitive grant program to help promote out pears overseas.

The growing season is underway here in the northwest and there are still pears from last year.

MOFFITT: We are at the endgame of the pear season this year. We have about 15% of the crop left to sell. Generally that is Green Anjou, Bosc, Red Anjou and frankly with this record crop we have record amounts of these varieties available. So it’s going to continue to be a hard fought deal to the end.

Moffitt has recently been appointed to the board of United Fresh and says he is looking forward to working with the board. He also says they are working hard to promote pears for this coming year.

MOFFITT: We’ve got our plans in place. We just gave our board and the marketing order fresh pear committee a preview and we will be doing some new activities in the domestic market and the export market as well as not doing some of the things that weren’t working as well. We’re going to be emphasizing consumer advertising again through magazine advertising, social media will be a key component.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.