Pear Harvest

Pear Harvest. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report. The 2013 pear harvest is under way and moving along nicely according to Pear Bureau Northwest’s, Kevin Moffitt. MOFFITT: The growers are harvesting their Starkrimson’s and their Bartlett’s right now. They are in the middle of that harvest. Have not started on Anjou’s nor some of the other winter pear varieties so we’re picking two weeks earlier than last year. We are further along than average but we still have a long harvest to go with the winter pears as well. Moffitt talks about the possible crop size for this years harvest. MOFFITT: We’ve had one estimate on the crop last May. At this point we are talking to a lot of of the packing houses to see how things are shaping up. It looks like we may come in a little higher than our estimate but it’s still a little bit early to tell. Our estimate was for a slightly larger crop than last year. Maybe 4% above last year and 2% above a five-year average. While not a huge crop, Moffitt says it may come in a little heavier. MOFFITT: At this point our first estimate would have made it our third largest crop in history so I suspect we’ll still be around that size when things are all said and done. When you get to be a record crop sometimes people are not used to that much fruit so it doesn’t get marketed as smoothly. But when we’ve had a couple of crops that are even larger than this it’s not quite so intimidating. The one thing that could be an issue this year is the very large apple crop in the country. That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.