Pear Estimate Update Pt 1

From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with today’s Fruit Grower Report. With our summer weather extending well into the fall, many are wondering what impact the extra heat may have had on earlier estimates for our Northwest pears?

Pear Bureau Northwest President, Kevin Moffitt says with some of the pears still heading to the warehouse, they’re still getting a handle on it …

MOFFITT … “The harvest was very late this year, a couple of weeks later than normal. So, the fruits still getting pulled into the sheds and sorted. So, our numbers continue to, we have weekly numbers now in our crop reports, and they continue to change.”

Moffitt says there will likely be a few things that factor into the final numbers …

MOFFITT … “It’s still settling in, but it looks to be, might be lower than that crop estimate at this point. But it’s kind of interesting, they’re also saying the fruits bigger. So, often times when the fruit is bigger it fills more boxes so the estimate goes up. So, I think we’re still in a wait-and-see mode, but I think that it’s probably going to be a smaller crop than we saw in the estimate.”

But Moffitt says when it come to the quality of this year’s pear crop …

MOFFITT … “Well, the fruit’s excellent in that regard, but I would say that probably that cold, and even snowy in some cases, spring time, I think it probably effected the quality a bit. So, depending on the area, which are the four growing areas, and even withing those four growing areas, the fruit be a little more frost marked than they would like to see.”

Tune in tomorrow for more on how the Northwest pear crop is looking after a challenging weather year.