US-grown pears will enter the Chinese market for the first time, after an agreement was stuck up between the US pear industry and the Chinese government.
The US-pear industry has been trying to gain approval to sell pears in China since 1994 but many industry sources believe the reward will be well worth the wait.
“The Pear Bureau and the Northwest pear industry have worked diligently with our partners at the Northwest Horticultural Council and USDA APHIS to bring this to fruition,” Pear Bureau Northwest president Kevin Moffitt explained.
“Based on our exports to Hong Kong and Taiwan and the overall market size of China, it could easily rank among the top five export markets for USA Pears within the next two or three seasons.”
Importers and exporters appear eager to make up for lost time, with the first significant shipment expected to arrive in China during the first quarter of 2013.
“We could expect to ship pears to China into April, which would be similar to our exports to Taiwan and Hong Kong,” Jeff Correa, director of international marketing at Pear Bureau Northwest said.
“That would give us two-and-a-half months of shipments into China.”
Between 25,000 and 40,000 44-pound boxes are expected to be shipped between February and April 2013, with as many as 300,000 boxes by 2016.
Correa believes China could become the top US export market for red pear varieties, such as Starkrimson and Red Anjou.
Pear Bureau Northwest has already put plans in place to educate Chinese importers and retailers about the current pear crop outlook and the varieties grown in the states of Washington and Oregon.
Meanwhile, the USDA APHIS has also announced that a final ruling authorising the importation of sand pears from China into the US has come into force.
However, the body noted that at this time, import permits will not be issued for sand pears from China until programme phytosanitary requirements described are finalised.
