Heavy russetting on English Conference pears brought on by erratic weather conditions this year will see saleable volumes of the variety significantly reduced, according to industry experts.
Cold weather in spring followed by scorching, dry conditions in July put Conference trees under stress, and subsequent cold nights and rain in August contributed to the heavy russetting, according to Adrian Barlow, chief executive of representative body English Apples and Pears. He said it was too early to make a formal estimate on shortages, but nearly every orchard in the UK would be affected.
“Conference is going to be the one variety in English apples and pears which is going to uniquely underperform,” he said. “It’s one of the quirks of the last year. This means a lot of Conference produced will not be fit for sale to retailers, so grade outs this year will be poor and way below the level we would normally expect.”
Top-fruit grower Paul Mansfield, of Kent-based FW Mansfield & Son, said: “It’s the first time we’ve seen this amount of russet. It’s a big disappointment and it will influence out class one grade outs through the season; availability will be less”.
Plentiful supply from Holland and Belgium will avoid an overall shortage of the variety, but returns for the UK’s Conference growers this year will be “very disappointing”, Barlow said.
He urged them not to waste money picking the affected fruit.
“It’s much better to leave them on trees,” he said. “I’ve no doubt there are some people who would feel that we ought to be working hard to try to achieve lower specifications with retailers so we can sell heavily-russetted product. But the reality is that we have to be driven by what consumers want. It’s very important that we maintain the standard.”
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