04/05/07 Pears matter

Late last year the Produce for Better Health Foundation introduced their More Matters campaigned designed to attract more consumers to fresh fruits and vegetables. They challenged the ag industry to take up the banner and USA Pears did just that. Kevin Moffitt, President and CEO of Pear Bureau Northwest. MOFFITT: They did a lot of research before they came up with this "More Matters" and basically they fee that More Matters is a slogan that can tell someone who's already eating 8 or 9 servings a day, hey, more is still better. And also the person that's doing 2 or 3 servings a day, more matters for you too. So if people eat more fruits and vegetables it's certainly a good thing for our pear growers and that's one reason we've been so active in it. Moffitt is quick to suggest adding pears to your grocery list. MOFFITT: The program includes fresh fruits and vegetables of all sorts and they try to tell people to try different things so we believe pears are not on everybody's shopping list so getting people to consider other fruits and vegetables is actually beneficial for us. Moffitt says their research shows that approximately 30% of consumers are eating close to 90% of the pears and he adds that a lot of people don't fully understand the pears nutritional benefits. MOFFITT: We're now able to say that pears are an excellent source of fiber with over 25% of the recommended daily allowance for fiber. That actually puts us higher than most any fruit and vegetables out there in terms of fiber. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.