More than 130 participants from various countries gathered on 16, 17 and 18 November in Paarl, Cape Town, South Africa for the 9th edition of Interpera, the International Pear Congress. The representatives came from Belgium, Spain, France, Italy, New Zealand and the United States to attend this annual pear meeting.
The event was co-organized, from Europe by AREFLH, and from South Africa by Hortgro, with the help, for the technical visits, of CERES Fruit Growers, Fruitly Africa and Wolseley Fruit Packers.
Two days of field visits in this magnificent country allowed the participants to get to know the local pear production better. In 2015 the production occupied an area of 12,700 ha for a production of 410,000 tons. Packams Triumph is grown on an area of 4,300 ha (34% of the total production), followed by Forelle (3.300 ha, 26%), Williams Bon Chrétien (2,200 ha, 20%) and Abate Fetel 810 Ha, 6%).
South African agriculture has many advantages: low parasitic pressure, abundant labour force, low wages and very competitive production costs. This explains its strong exporting capacity. Its main markets are Europe (43%), the Middle East (20%), Asia (18%), Russia (5%) and Africa (6%).
The two-days conference was devoted to:
- Varietal innovation, which has been much more active over the past ten years with a clear trend towards red varieties
- The evolution of world production, which is constantly increasing. It has risen from 15 million tonnes in 2002 to 25 million tonnes in 2014. China is by far the main producer with 18 million tonnes followed by the European Union (2,400,000 tonnes) and Argentina (850,000 T)
- The major market trends developments due to the Russian ban and the markets repositioning that followed, to countries such as the Middle East, Asia, and, tomorrow, Africa. The export of pears has also been analysed, China comes first, with 14% (370,000 T). It is followed by Argentina (12%, 340,000T), Belgium (11%), the Netherlands (11%) and South Africa (8%).
The high quality presentations of the congress are all available on www.interpera.com.
The next edition of Interpera will be held in the United States on 15 and 16 June 2017 in Wenatchee, Washington. For more information contact Laetitia Forget at communication@areflh.org.