Pear Update Pt 1
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with today’s Fruit Grower Report. It’s December and the pears are off the trees and in storage awaiting shipment to the stores and into the hands of consumers, but it’s been an interesting year.
Kevin Moffitt, president of Pear Bureau Northwest, says the estimates have been a bit up and down …
MOFFITT … “The estimates were quite interesting. You know, in April, when we had the snow, people thought that the fruit was not going to make it at all, that we’d have a terribly short crop. When the summer came through, the estimates were pretty reasonable, about the same size as last year.”
Or, Moffitt says maybe a bit less than that …
MOFFITT … “Well, the pack-outs are coming in a little bit lower than they had hoped. So, we’re probably going to be a little bit shorter than last year in the total crop, mostly because they’re just not getting the pack-outs at the bin that they expected to.”
But overall, Moffitt says not too bad …
MOFFITT … “The estimates are based on, first of all, how many bins they pack and then they, if they don’t get as many boxes out of that then the estimate can go down. So, we have plenty of fruit for the consumer, but it’s just a bit smaller than they expected it to be.”
Even if the pears turned out a little larger than normal …
MOFFITT … “We’re having to make our push at retail towards the larger sized fruit. Not as much bags. Bags are still in demand. They’re still packing bags, but we want to get the big fruit out into the market on the bulk side as well because that’s where the fruit is skewing in that direction mostly.”
Tune in tomorrow for more on this year’s Northwest pears.
