Photo: Domex Superfresh Growers
Lighter set of fruit
“This year’s crop is five percent shorter than the 2016-2017 crop and seven percent shorter than the 2015-2016 crop,” says Catherine Gipe-Stewart of Domex Superfresh Growers, which grows both organic and conventional pears. The crop, she adds, is shorter due to natural alternate bearing and a lighter set of fruit. That is except for the D’Anjou pears, which are up in supply this year.
Photo: Domex Superfresh Growers
The Northwest region reports there are eight million boxes left to ship, compared to 7.4 million at this time last year. Red Bartletts are 96 percent shipped for the season while Starkrimson red pears have finished up. For red D’Anjous, 604,000 boxes remain while last year there were 531,000 at this time—though green D’Anjous have 5.8 million boxes left and last year at this time had 4.6 million boxes left and Boscs still has 1.2 million boxes at this time. (Last year at this time there were 1.6 million boxes left.)
Bruce Turner, of Oneonta Starr Ranch, also noted that the pear season is continuing through a strong market, with the major varieties set to finish progressively in the coming months. "Bartletts and Bosc have had great seasons so far and will be finishing up in early February and March, respectively," he said. "Green and Red D'Anjous are halfway done with a projected finish in June."
Photo: Oneonta Starr Ranch
Photo: Oneonta Starr Ranch
Exports and imports
In addition to strong domestic demand, the export market has also seen good numbers. Pear growers are taking note of early season demand from Asian and Middle East markets. "US, Canada, Mexico and Central America drive most of the demand," Turner said. "However Asia, China and the Middle East have nice pulls early in the season. Export demand has been strong this year and the Green and Red D'Anjou pricing is fairly stable compared to last year."
Turning to imports, Turner added that pears from Argentina will make an appearance on US shelves from March, but he doesn't foresee any drop in sales for domestic fruit at that time. The main reason is that Bartletts from Argentina will fill inventories just as domestic supply for this variety eases. "Bosc and Bartlett pricing has actually been quite strong this year and is expected to continue as the imports arrive," he said. "Argentina has just begun their Bartlett harvest. Import Bartletts enjoy a nice wide open window in March and April and do put some pressure on our D’Anjous, but most retailers in the US and Canada have found their pears category sales actually increase by carrying both green pears at the same time!"
Smaller sizes
While growers report the quality is good for pears, sizing is down. “This is due to a freezing winter and cold spring,” says Gipe-Stewart. “The colder weather slowed down cell-division, thus resulting in smaller sizes.” Those smaller sizes though, notes Gipe-Stewart, are good pouch-bag sizes which is something the pear industry is considering more and more.
Altogether though that has pushed prices up slightly—in November, the average retail price was up 1.7 percent. That’s on an already slightly increased 2017 number when prices were up 0.2 percent over 2016.
While growers report the quality is good for pears, sizing is down. “This is due to a freezing winter and cold spring,” says Gipe-Stewart. “The colder weather slowed down cell-division, thus resulting in smaller sizes.” Those smaller sizes though, notes Gipe-Stewart, are good pouch-bag sizes which is something the pear industry is considering more and more.
Altogether though that has pushed prices up slightly—in November, the average retail price was up 1.7 percent. That’s on an already slightly increased 2017 number when prices were up 0.2 percent over 2016.
Photo: Oneonta Starr Ranch
Organic pears booming
The demand for organic pears continues to grow, while conventional pear consumption stagnates. Growers are capitalizing on this growth by continuing to convert acreage from conventional to organic to try to keep up with demand.
"Pear consumption in the US is generally fairly flat, but the demand for organic pears is continuing to increase at record levels," Turner said. "Organic pear demand is an exciting topic at retail right now. We have seen huge conversions of D'Anjou and Bartlett to organic production and we are still struggling to keep up with demand. We see that trend continuing and have geared our own production and retail programming heavily in that direction."
For more information:
Catherine Gipe-StewartDomex Superfresh Growers
Tel: +1-509.654.7465
cgipe@superfreshgrowers.com
www.superfreshgrowers.com
Written by Astrid Van Den Broek and Dennis Rettke.