Pear industry working to meet demand for new varieties
MILWAUKIE, Ore. — The recent changes in the apple industry have spurred retailers to ask about new pear varieties, and companies are working on meeting that demand.
With the time it takes for pear trees to come into production, however, it will likely be several more years before grower-shippers can deliver.
“The pear industry has not been as dynamic in developing new varieties because we are in need of a new rootstock,” said Kevin Moffitt, CEO of Milwaukie-based Pear Bureau Northwest.
“There are a lot of new varieties being developed worldwide for pears, but until we can get a new rootstock that’s shorter, that can be grafted easily with these new varieties, we’re probably not going to see a huge change.
“We’re on the cusp, but it’s still a ways away,” Moffitt said.
Roger Pepperl, marketing director for Wenatchee, Wash.-based Stemilt Growers, said there have been some replacement plantings in the Northwest but that the pear population in the region has mostly been steady.
“I think you’ll see eventually that change with some new varieties that might come in in the coming five, six years, but I don’t think you’ll see them in the marketplace for a while,” Pepperl said. “But I think that’ll be the next proliferation of growth in pears.”
Steve Lutz, senior strategist for Wenatchee-based CMI Orchards, shared a similar impression.
“The varietal innovation in the pear category is started, and many test blocks of new pears have been planted,” Lutz said. “But it will be a few more years before these new pear varieties really start to hit the market.”
While retailers wait for the latest and greatest, the bureau is encouraging them to feature pears that are already available.
“A lot of consumers probably aren’t familiar with a lot of the varieties we grow already, so in effect we do have new varieties to their consumer,” Moffitt said.
“Maybe they’re not new to that buyer, that retailer, because they’ve been in the industry, but how many consumers really know a forelle, or a seckel, or even a comice pear?
“So we encourage retailers to look at some of those varieties as a new variety, or maybe new to their consumer, or in effect an heirloom variety, and promote it that way," Moffit said.
