Northwest US pear growers predict 2% drop in crop size
Growers in Oregon’s Mid-Columbia region say they expect to rebound slightly from a short crop last year, but growers overall in the Northwest anticipate a third straight year of a shorter crop—one that comes in below the 20 million box mark.
The Fresh Pear Committee, voted to maintain assessments at 44.9 cents per box, with 38.5 cents for promotion, 3.1 cents for research and 3.3 cents for administrative costs.
The Processed Pear Committee also estimated a smaller crop for canning—setting their budget at somewhere around 103,000 tons—because more orchards are being transitioned to organic and more fruit is being sold for fresh.
According to the Pear Bureau’s latest crop report, exports were down 17 percent overall for the 2015-16 crop—15 percent to Mexico, 56 percent to China, 38 percent to the United Arab Emirates, 43 percent to India and 65 percent to Colombia.
source: goodfruit.com
