Pear Update

Pear Update

Pear Update. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Like apples, pears are one of the last tree fruits to be picked and currently the 2015 harvest is underway. Kevin Moffitt with Pear Bureau Northwest says like every other crop this year, harvest is early.

MOFFITT: A week or two earlier than average and I’m sure that goes for most fruit up in the northwest here. Harvest is in full swing especially on Bartlett’s and Stark Crimson’s. We’re probably going to have a crop that’s just about average with the past five years. So a crop very similar in size to a five-year average.

He says it will be about 4% smaller than last years crop.

MOFFITT: It’ll be a solid crop. Part of the reason for the smaller crop is the smaller fruit sizes. It’s just filling fewer boxes when you get smaller fruit and that’s the case this year probably a lot having to do with the hot weather we’ve had over the late spring and summer.

This years fruit according to Moffitt will average one to two sizes smaller. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

MOFFITT: I suspect that means we’ll have more fruit in the 100’s and smaller sizing than normal and perhaps less of this huge fruit that we’ve had in the last couple of years. There’ll be fruit available ninth smaller sizes for the export markets and some of the domestic retailers that will take that small fruit and then there will be plenty of fruit in the large sizes as well but it might be a bit of a premium price for the larger fruit.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.

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