08/17/07 Update On Pear Market

Update on Pear Market. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Pear Bureau Northwest's Kevin Moffitt just got back from Europe where he spent time at the World Apple and Pear meeting. He talked about the issues facing U.S. pear growers. MOFFITT: What are the issues affecting growers of apples and pears such as the labor issues, the rising costs, everything from fuel costs and input costs to even the fact that our bees are having some colony collapse and that sort of thing so it was very interesting because except for the bees, European growers are facing very similar problems. Moffitt says the crop estimates globally varied although apple production is down. MOFFITT: In terms of the pear production in Europe they're forecasting also a decrease overall, all 27 countries expecting a decrease of about 8% from last year and about 3% below a 4 year average. That also looks pretty good in terms of the opportunities for U.S. pears going into Europe. So if you couple a slightly smaller crop with a strong Euro against the dollar, we're feeling fairly confident for increasing our shipments to Europe this year. That is good news on the world front, but what about in our own back yard? MOFFITT: As you very well know we've started our harvest up in Washington and also in Oregon and we're expecting a slightly larger crop than last year but where we are really going to see some increase is in the Bartlett crop. Overall we're expecting an increase of about 8% versus last year. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.