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SUNNY Temp: 78 °F Wind: W at 3 mph Saturday, October 12, 2002 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend September 21, 2002 Enrique Morales empties his picking bag into a bin of pears at a Carpenter Hilll Road orchard on Friday. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli PEAR CROP Higher prices make up for reduced production By GREG STILES Mail Tribune The Rogue Valley pear crop, hit hard by fire blight, will likely yield a better return than in 2001 thanks to higher prices. "A lot of trees have been taken out of production, so the overall crop in the valley is down — about 10 percent would be a decent estimate," said Scott Martinez, sales manager at Associated Fruit in Phoenix. "But on the flip side, we’re going to entertain a strong market through this thing." Weather had an impact throughout the Northwest, but foreign competition doesn’t appear to be as much of a detriment this year. "We had a weird cold snap and then it got hot again and that put fruit behind," Martinez said. "I think the majority of the Northwest growers feel fruit will be down a size from last year." He said the market isn’t as bad for smaller red varieties and that pears converted to juice fared well. "Del Monte made some good orders and paid a little more than usual," Martinez said. The local harvest which began Aug. 12 for Bartletts and the first weekend of September for winter fruit, such as Comice, is going well. But pickers weren’t in great supply because California’s peach and nectarine crops were plentiful and kept harvesters busy longer. Martinez said it was a good year, by and large, for summer varieties such as stark, crimsons, rosy reds and red silks as well as red and green Bartletts. Although specifics on local prices are hard to come by, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported earlier this month that prices for boxes delivered to shipping sites by sellers for U.S. No. 1 Bartlett pears from Washington’s Yakima Valley and Wenatchee district ranged from $20 for boxes containing 70 to 90 pears to $12 to $14 for boxes with 135 pears (box sizes are uniform, so the cheaper boxes contain less desirable, smaller fruit). The top end is about the same as last year, while the smallest marketable boxes were $10 to $11. According to The Packer, a produce industry journal, shippers foresee lower volumes this season for both Bartletts and winter pears. Early estimates from the Pear Bureau Northwest, figured there would be 2.38 million 44-pound boxes shipped, down 23 percent from last year’s 3.1 million. Winter pears throughout the Northwest should reach 14.2 million boxes, down from 15.4 million in 2001. Because of the tremendous historical success of Bear Creek Corp.’s value-added pear sales, other local orchardists have benefited by getting better prices than other Northwest growers. "We’d like to believe that the sugar content here is higher than anywhere in the Northwest," says Fruit Growers League executive director Bill Eckart. "The brokers know what they are doing and where they can go to make the most of it." As a result, Rogue Valley pears can range much higher than the Washington pears, well up into the $30s for large fruit and in the high teens for smaller sizes. Industry figures show Bosc production is down 13 percent from last year, down 6 percent from normal. Comice is 10 percent below last year and 5 percent from normal. Bartlett varieties are down 15 percent from 2001 and 6 percent more than historic numbers. However, red pears are up 5 percent this year and the past norm. "That speaks to number of trees in the ground," Martinez says. "The farmers are putting more in the ground because of demand and finding more acceptance in the marketplace." Bear Creek, which does go through fresh market channels, said it expected to pick more than 11,000 tons of its Royal Riviera variety. "Certainly we had elevated disease and insect pressures to deal with," said Ron Henri, Bear Creek’s senior vice president for orchards. "But these are challenges that we have learned how to deal with effectively. Failure to control such outbreaks is not an option, and we have management and horticultural options available to maintain current-season crops and, importantly, the long-term productivity of our orchards." Even though trees were lost to fire blight, Bear Creek should be able to meet the demand of its markets. "Our acreage has not been reduced, per se, but rather we have had losses of individual trees in part or in total as the result of disease," Henri said. "We were able to control the spread of the disease for this season, and now turn our attention to working with owners of local abandoned orchards to eliminate disease sources for the next growing season." Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail [email protected] . 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