Pear Estimates for 2019 Pt 1
With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. Estimates for 2019's Northwest pear crop are out and things are looking good, but off a bit from last year's outstanding crop.Pear Bureau Northwest's Kathy Stephenson says they just met with the Fresh Pear Committee to hash things out ...
STEPHENSON ... "Those are annual meeting that are held once a year in Portland. And, we had wonderful attendance of growers, shippers, industry folks, along with, of course, with our board members. And, that process allows us to capture estimates of what's happening on the tree in all four of our growing regions."
At the meeting, Stephenson says they talk everything pear-related ...
STEPHENSON ... "So, we are able to talk about how that bud went and how many little pears we're seeing, if there's been drops and what kind of impact maybe frost and other things are having on the different regions. And, that process as we roll all those estimates up into our working estimate for the fresh pear crop coming out of Washington and Oregon."
But, they also talk about the numbers ...
STEPHENSON ... "And, it looks like this year we have about 17.3-million standard boxes. Our stand box is about 44 pounds. That looks like it's going to be about a 9% decrease from our last year's harvest, which was quite good. And, it's about 6% below our five-year average. These numbers change and it could up and down between now and when we harvest for sure."
Tune in tomorrow for more on this year's Northwest Pear crop and how the production landscape may be changing just a bit.