Interpera World Pear Conference Pt 1

Interpera World Pear Conference Pt 1

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. Over 160 people gathered in Wenatchee recently for the Interpera Congress for 2017, a worldwide pear conference held in the U.S. for the first time.

Pear Bureau Northwest president Kevin Moffitt says experts from around the world covered several important topics ...

KEVIN MOFFITT ... "New pear variety development, root stocks, integrated pest management, but also things like harvest and packing house mechanization as well as consumption and how to increase consumption."

Moffitt says the pear industry is growing, but not quite as fast as other popular crops ...

KEVIN MOFFITT ... "There are a lot of great developments going on in new pear varieties, for example. It's just that we haven't moved as quickly, we haven't been able to move as quickly, as they have on the apple side."

Moffitt says as research continues, building a greater pear-presence with consumers comes down to a couple of challenges ...

KEVIN MOFFITT ... "There's two issues there. Awareness needs to be done to increase consumer demand around the world and for us especially, we export about 40% of the pears grown in Oregon and Washington. So, the domestic market is huge for us, of course, but we need to create demand around the world. So, creating awareness is a big issue for us, but as you say, on the research side, there are not as many researchers that are getting funding to look at pears."

The Interpera Congress was held in Wenatchee June 15th and 16th ... The 2-day event was broken up with speakers covering industry topics on Thursday and tours of orchards and packing facilities on Friday.

Listen tomorrow for more on how the pear industry proposes to grow its market share.

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