08/10/05 New threat to NW canned pears? Pt.2

At one time, the Northwest canned pear industry considered its biggest threat to be coming from South Africa. That was because South African canned pears were, and are allowed in duty free under federal law. However, their position as chief rival to Northwest canned pears has been replaced by China. That's because China's mass production has resulted in lower prices than South African canned pears, and South Africa's industry unable to respond due to a drop in currency and interest in other markets. Jay Grandy of the Washington Oregon Canning Pears Association says currently China makes up ninety-five per cent of all canned pear imports into the U.S. But Grandy also points out that while China may be a threat to our region's canned pear industry from a volume standpoint, there are other reasons why China may not be the threat that it appears. GRANDY: We do have duty on the pears coming in from China, where as South Africa's duty was removed about five years ago. So they're passing a price including duty paid when they import them. There are some differences in the pears if they then to use some of the Asian pears in their cans and they kind of slip through and I think kind of get mistaken for Bartletts. Many times they are purchased by people thinking they're buying canned Bartletts which is a quality product. Other kinds of pears don't seem to work as well in the cans as Bartletts do. And here in the U.S. we won't can anything else but Bartletts. The bottom line is Bartlett is unique and has a place of its own.