Pear Estimates 2020 Pt 1
Pear Bureau Northwest’s Kathy Stephenson says the earliest varieties are being harvested and the estimate numbers call for 16.6-million standard box equivalents, slightly above last years …
STEPHENSON … “This is a great estimate. We’re really excited about working together as an industry and waiting a little bit to make sure we’ve got a good number. That’s going to be good for the growers and it’s going to be good for the retailers as well to really know how many pears we’re dealing with.”
And, Stephenson says the green Anjou makes up 51% of the crop …
STEPHENSON … “For sure, as we are in those northern areas that Anjou’s grow so beautifully, and it is the most plentiful of the Northwest crop for sure. A lot of Bartlett’s will be grown too and some of them going into the canning side of the business, and certainly in California the Bartlett is a bigger player.”
Quality, Stephenson says looks great as well …
STEPHENSON … “Yeah, everything looks beautiful. We’ve gotten good reports. They did have some hail damage in areas like Parkdale, but across the board, beautiful fruit. The sizing is good. There was some concern that maybe they’d be on the smaller side, but things are looking great and we’re going to keep them on the tree as long as possible to get the better sizes, but right now the conditions and the weather forecasts all look great.”
Tune in tomorrow for more … on this year’s Northwest pear crop.
