French pears arrived on the market in the second half of July with the Guyot variety. “For the early varieties like Guyot and William, the harvest is over. The Conference variety will now arrive on the market. We are now finishing up the harvest,” explains Vincent Guérin, in charge of economic affairs at ANPP.
Regarding the pears this year, although the weather conditions affected the volumes, they also made for a very satisfactory taste quality. “We suffered mostly in terms of volumes because of bad weather conditions during the flowering phase, with frost in some production areas. However, the hot and dry summer had some rather positive effect on the quality of the pears. This year, we have very good sugar levels and a lot of flavors. So in terms of taste quality, this year is good, even very good.
On the other hand, our volumes are quite limited as we predict to harvest 115,000 tons of pears this year in France, which is 14% less than last year. We hope that this will have a positive effect on prices, especially since the French harvest is small, in the context of a very small European harvest. In Italy, for example, the Abate harvest was very small, so France will import fewer pears this year. This is why we expect the market to be sustained,” explains Vincent.
The demand is currently quite limited. “The market is well balanced. We have a small demand, adapted to the offer. As far as the Guyot and William varieties are concerned, everything went well so the results should be rather positive. Also the demand for pears has been going up in the past few days, which makes for a more sustained market.”
For more information:
Vincent Guérin
Association Nationale Pommes Poires
7 rue Biscornet - 75012 PARIS
Phone: +33 (0) 1 53 10 27 80
Fax: +33 (0)1 53 10 27 88
v.guerin@pommespoires.fr
contact@lapomme.org
www.lapomme.org