Pear Challenge Part 3

We have been talking to Kevin Moffitt with Pear Bureau Northwest about the challenges of marketing northwest pears. They fall behind other fruits like cherries and apples. Moffitt says there are number of challenges with pears including crop size.

MOFFITT: After last years' light apple crop in the U.S. this years going to be a record crop for apples. Now granted Washington's crop is down from last year and that is helpful but they've got large crops in Michigan and New York and that's going to be a challenge for us to get the retailers to increase our display space and to get pears on ad at the retail.

Of course this was also a record crop year for pears as well.

MOFFITT: It's huge not only in it's number of boxes but as you very well know we've got some huge, huge pears out there as well. Jumbo pear sizing. Anjou pears are peaking on 80 size this year which is good for the domestic market but nearly a third of the Red and Green Anjou crop is 70 and larger this year compared to just about 20% last year. That's going to be a bit of a challenge.

Another big fight is over retail space in the supermarket.

MOFFITT: Now to fight the fight at retail for space and ads which is very important we have a team based around the country who call on the retailers each year setting up promotions. We try to get as much space on the shelf. We also provide them with customized data showing them how they do compared to their competition and we provide them merchandising solutions.

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