Pear Estimate 2024 Pt 1
From the Ag Information Network, this is today’s Fruit Grower Report. The estimates are out for our Northwest pear crop this season and the numbers are down thanks to some winter weather challenges.
Jeff Correa, International Marketing Director for Pear Bureau Northwest, says things are a bit better than first thought, but …
CORREA … “The crop has increased slightly from what we initially estimated. So, I think there was probably more concern about how the crop may size up, but it’s still going to be our smallest crop in over 40 years. So, we have 10.6 million boxes versus when we originally thought it was going to be around 10 million boxes.”
And broken down by variety, Correa says things vary …
CORREA … “Still very small, down substantially on a lot of major varieties. Green Anjou is down about 26%. Bosc, which is the one that is down the most, 62% from last year. Bartlett, about 26% down.”
Correa says different districts saw different results …
CORREA … “The district that was hit the hardest was up in the Wenatchee district. They had more of their orchards that got negatively impacted. Just didn’t set a crop when we had the big freeze back in January. So, that impacted a lot of the fruit there.”
Some bad, some not as bad …
CORREA … “Mid-Columbia is relatively decent, you know, only down about 11%. Medford is down substantially too, about 50%. Yakima down about 20% too from previous seasons.”
Tune in tomorrow for more on this year’s Northwest pear crop.
