This is the third year in a row that the Rocha pear has had a small harvest. Vitor Santos, producer and shipper of Rocha pears in Portugal, takes stock of the current campaign. "Compared with a production potential of 230,000/240,000 tons, the Rocha harvest over the last 3 years has not reached more than 50% of this potential. The members of the Rocha Pear Producers' Association (ANP), who represent around 90% of the total Rocha production, harvested 114,759 tons last year, which is less than 50% of the full production potential."
+35% more Rocha pears harvested by Santos & Pereira growers
At first glance, this would seem like a rather complicated situation for most growers, but the harvest turned out to be a positive one for Santos & Pereira. "As far as we are concerned, we are satisfied with both quality and quantity, with around 35% more pears than last year. We currently have much better sizes to market than during the previous season. So even if the quantities are fairly limited, we should be able to achieve good sales results for our growers thanks to this better quality and especially these better sizes."
Santos & Pereira at Fruit Attraction 2024
The challenges facing the Rocha pear sector
The diminished harvests are due to a combination of factors. "The weather conditions were appalling, which is why we harvested so little fruit. The winter was too mild to stop the sap from rising. Spring, on the other hand, was cold and wet, which was detrimental to flowering and fruit set. Our Rocha pear sector is facing two challenges that are vital to its survival. These are two diseases that we have been fighting for at least ten years now. The most serious is Bacterial Blight. Although this disease has been detected in Portugal for twelve years, it is only in the last 4 or 5 years that it has caused the most devastation, forcing our growers to uproot large areas of orchards. The other disease, Stemphyliosis (derived from Stemphylium), is also responsible for a lot of losses at harvest time. Stemphyliosis manifests itself as rotting spots on the fruit (usually the larger ones), shortly before harvest time. These are the two phenomena currently holding back the development of the Rocha sector. The future of the Rocha pear depends on finding a solution to these two problems."
Santos & Pereira at Fruit Attraction 2024
Particularly high prices to compensate for the lack of volume
On the market, faced with this succession of small harvests, prices for Rocha pears have soared. "For the second year running, the Rocha pear has achieved prices that can be described as very high. I would say €0.60/€0.70 [0.62/0/72 USD] is higher per kilo than the average for recent years. At such prices, we are of course selling fewer Rocha pears than when prices were lower. But if we have to take stock of sales at the start of 2025, they are quite well adapted to our availability. We are selling at a pace that suits us, so we can have Rocha pears until the end of May, or even the beginning of June, depending on our sales schedule."
A positive balance sheet for some growers
However, despite limited quantities, a market that can sometimes be tense, and the uncertain future of the sector, which is facing major challenges, the balance sheet for some growers is quite positive: "Although it may seem paradoxical, the last few years of small production have been excellent overall for our growers. Thanks to rising prices, their business has never been so profitable. Unfortunately, this does not apply to growers who have only had a very low production, but on the contrary to all those who have had at least 50% of their production. For those who had a harvest close to 'normal', these have been extraordinary years." This feeling of satisfaction is shared by the vast majority of Santos & Pereira, LDA growers.
For more information:
Vítor Santos
Santos & Pereira
Travessa da Paraventa, n°8
2510-704 Gaeiras
Portugal
Phone: +351 917 814 445
[email protected]