Smaller sizes on pears are tight on supplies and strong on pricing
Pear supplies down slightly for 2020 and consumption trends of the fruit are strong.
Randy Hartmann of Bellevue, WA-based Pacificpro notes the total Northwest pear crop is down from 2019. “The largest variety grown in Washington and Oregon is the Green D Anjou variety, accounting for approximately 50 percent of the total pear crop and that was off from early projections of around 8.5 million cartons, to closer to 8 million. That’s down around 11 percent year-over-year,” he says. “Much of the decrease can be attributed to lower yields on some older orchards.”
Those older orchards producing lower yields are proving to be a challenge for the Pacific Northwest. “This combined with the increased costs of labor, and other growing, harvesting, packing and marketing inputs creates increasing economic challenges and viability for growers,” he says.