This year’s pear harvest will arrive with empty warehouses and a moderately optimistic outlook
Catalan pear production is set to exceed 100,000 tonnes this season according to initial estimates from Afrucat.
This is a 43 per cent increase on last year’s harvest but remains 7 per cent below the five-year average.
The forecast, presented at this week’s International Pear Congress, Interpera in Hasselt, Belgium, does not take account of the recent hailstorms.
Sources from the Department of Agriculture said these had affected 1,120ha of sweet pears, causing expected losses of between 20 per cent and 40 per cent.
The figures also show a partial recovery in Conference, Williams, and Bartlett, while production of summer pears varieties – Limonera, Ercolini, and Blanquilla – which were less affected last season, is expected to be slightly lower than last year.
Interpera also heard how Europe is showing a general recovery in pear volume, the exception being France, which forecasts a 9 per cent decrease in production due to a significant physiological drop in fruit, pegging its crop at 124,000 tonnes.
Overall, Spain anticipates a pear harvest of 320,000 tonnes, 31 per cent higher than last year.
Belgian production is expected to increase by 25 per cent to 317,000 tonnes. Italy and the Netherlands reported higher production this year but did not provide volume estimates.
According to Afrucat’s general manager, Manel Simon, “there is a sense of moderate optimism among European producing areas, due to two main factors: on the one hand, the partial recovery of this pear production potential, which will allow us to adequately supply our customers, and on the other, the fact that production from last season will not overlap with this new harvest, as we are ending the campaign with empty warehouses”.
