Pear Crop Estimate

Pear Crop Estimate. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

The 2013 pear crop is several months away but Christie Mather with Pear Bureau Northwest says the latest estimate is looking pretty good.

MATHER: This season is looking to be our third largest crop on record predicted to come in at 19.8 million standard box equivalents which are the 44 pound boxes. Compared to last year it’s 2% larger than last year. Last year was at 19.5 million compared to this years 19.8 million and it’s 4% larger than the five-year average crop.

Mather give us a run down of the top varieties.

MATHER: The top three varieties in terms of production remain the same as they have been in the previous years. Green Anjou pears are projected to make up 53% of the 2013 crop and then the Bartlett pears are going to yield 22% with Bosc coming in at about 15% of the total crop.

Additional varieties make up the remaining 9%.

MATHER: Pears are very different than apples in terms of the number of varieties we have to offer. We still have our primary 10 heirloom varieties. The newer varieties to the consumers are the Concord and the Starkrimson and those are being very well received in the marketplace so we are really very excited about those varieties.

An interesting side note some of the additional red pear varieties are doubling in size so watch for them in the future.

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