Eclipse and Pear Harvest Pt 2

Eclipse and Pear Harvest Pt 2

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. Yesterday's total eclipse of the sun wasn't the only big event in the Pacific Northwest. Pear harvest began in the mountain and valley orchards of Washington and Oregon, the first step before they begin their sweep across the country.

Pear Bureau Northwest's Kathy Stephenson says they hope to see a pear production and purchase "eclipse" of last year ...

KATHY STEPHENSON ... "Absolutely. Every year we go to our buyers with ideas on how to increase their pear performance, or "eclipse" their pear performance from the prior year. And, yeah, the play on words certainly worked for us this year and we've got a great, great crop coming on and we have terrific programs and ideas. Our USA Pear's team is out sharing data and category information as well as way to really envelope the consumer this year with social media, digital media, couponing, and advertising, all sorts of programs and recipes and sampling in order to really eclipse those pear category sales from last year."

Stephenson says the crop looks to be a little below the five-year average, but the pears look beautiful ...

KATHY STEPHENSON ... "Our estimate was just adjusted last month and went up to closer to 18-million standard cases, so a little up from our June estimate. So, now we wait for all those pears to be harvested and packed out."

In the Pear Bureau's promotion this year, they sent out a mailer that included NASA-approved eclipse viewing glasses along with access to marketing and USA Pears training information.

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