Pears and Year Ahead Pt 2

Pears and Year Ahead Pt 2

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. The focus on pear promotion will be keen in this new year, as Northwest pear growers look to rebound from a slightly down production year.

But, Pear Bureau Northwest CEO Kevin Moffitt says they’ll also be keeping a close eye on the developments in foreign trade deals already made and those in the process …

MOFFITT … “We’re looking at the trade issues, of course, and we want to ensure that the markets that are in play with growth potential, like Mexico as well as India and even the Middle East like the United Arab Emirates, we’re trying to ensure that those markets continue to grow. That will be definitely on our radar for this second half of the season or the first half of 2020.”

Tariff reductions or removals, Moffitt says will be key …

MOFFITT … “Seeing other trade agreements, we’d certainly like to see China lower their duties again because we’ve pretty much lost that market to pear shipments because of the higher duty rates. So, if we can move forward on that, getting those duty rates back down, that would be positive for us.”

Moffitt says works being done in other markets as well …

MOFFITT … “India we have, we’d like to see, but we don’t really have any extra duties on pears right now there. Unfortunately, the Japanese market, any trade deal with them right now isn’t going to help pears because we’re not allowed in due to some, I think it’s either coddling moth or some non-tariff barriers that are keeping us out of that market, as well as the Korean market.”

Compared to last year, Moffitt believes the outlook for this year is good, which often happens after having a smaller crop.

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