QTee has been sold in 13 different countries this year

The red pear variety Celina, with the brand name QTee, has been harvested more in Belgium than last year. “A volume of 520 tons,” says Kris Wouters of Fruithandel Wouters. “The season went well; everything has been sold in the meantime. We have chosen to sell the pears to several markets.”

Kris continues: “The reason to choose more markets is to get a feeling for which destination we could best sell our pears to in the future. In addition, to find out how much we can plant of this pear. We have adjusted the packaging to the wishes of some foreign clients. The QTee was for sale in 13 countries in total. This made the sorting a little bit more difficult, because there were often different packages required for the different destinations.”

The fruit trader states that there were more paler coloured pears this year. “But we saw during this year, that they are very good on the market. There is obviously a demand for pears without a rough skin. The best reaction to the QTee came this year from Germany, Sweden, and the Middle East.” In 2017, the first pears will come from South Africa. “The harvest will start somewhere in the beginning of January. The harvest is still minimal, because they use swift growing rootstocks in South Africa. The trees will really start producing when they are four years old. The first larger productions will be expected during the next season,” Kris concludes.