Pear Outlook 2018 Pt 1

Pear Outlook 2018 Pt 1

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. Good news for Northwest pear growers who are happy to hear crop estimates for the upcoming crop.

The Pear Bureau Northwest's Kathy Stephenson says it's especially good news given the past couple of seasons ...

STEPHENSON ... "The last two years have been quite short for the pear industry so the growers are very excited. In our annual meeting last month, we met and the estimate is about almost 19-million standard box equivalents, so that's about 415 tons of fresh pears going into the market this year."

But, Stephenson says it's a bigger crop, but not record breaking ...

STEPHENSON ... "That's an 18 percent increase off of last year's small harvest, but it's really very equivalent to a five-year average. So, we're making back up some ground from last year, but it's not an abnormally large crop. So, healthy, great, marketable fruit that is going to start picking in mid to late August and we'll start seeing a lot of that product in the market in early September."

She says the weather and the set for blossoms have been good, but it's still early ...

STEPHENSON ... "So, we'll be watching that carefully and do additional assessments into July and August, but things are looking very good and if the growing conditions are exactly what we need them to be we should see a very strong crop next season."

Green Anjou makes up nearly 50 percent of the Northwest crop, followed by Bartlett at 24%, Bosc at almost 16 percent, and Red Anjou at more than 5 percent.

Listen tomorrow for more on Northwest pears and how they're impacted by potential trade barriers.

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BL: Welcome back to another "Fruit Bites" brought to you by Valent U.S.A. With us again is Valent's Allison Walston. And this week Allison, I understand you had an encounter with a rather famous cat?

AW: I met Dr. Universe at an entomology meeting last week.

BL: Dr. Universe? Is that the cat scientist who answers science questions from curious kids?

AW: Yes! Well, actually I met the human, Rachel Webber, who is the science writer for Dr. Universe the cat.

BL: So, anybody can submit questions and Dr Universe will answer?

AW: mostly questions from kids and she gets a lot of insect questions. Dr. Universe answers and relates to current research being conducted by scientists at Washington State University.

BL: And, I see on the askDrUniverse.wsu.edu website, there's a question about grasshoppers and how they survive winter.

AW: There is even one about how bees make honey. So, each week a new question is answered and you can sign up for the email newsletter. This is a great way to encourage kids to ask, think and learn about science.

BL: Well, thanks Allison. Join us again next time for Fruit Bites, brought to you by Valent. Until then, I'm Bob Larson.

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