11/13/07 Update On Pears

Update On Pear Crop. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. You can hear Kevin Moffitt smile through the phone. Moffitt is the executive director of Pear Bureau Northwest and he has been looking over the latest pear figures. MOFFITT: The crop report as of November 2nd shows that we have moved about 28% of the crop versus about 27% of the crop same time last year. So we did get off to a good early start. So far we've shipped 5 million - 300 thousand boxes versus 4 million  500 thousand last year at this time. The crop last year was a bit shorter crop so Moffitt says they compare it to two years ago as well. MOFFITT: But even compared to two years ago, we're up probably by a good margin, say like seven, eight hundred thousand boxes even against 2 years ago. Last years D'Anjou crop was hit pretty hard with a massive hailstorm just prior to harvest. MOFFITT: This years D'Anjou crop has bounced back in terms of numbers and actually we are seeing a lot more Bartlett's this year than ever before but a smaller Bosc crop overall so in general we are up significantly from last years shorter crop but in a range of a 5-year average crop so we're still above a 5-year average but not that far off where we need to be to have sufficient product for the domestic market as well as our exports. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.