For French exporter Blue Whale, pears were a marginal item before packers from Loire Valley-based cooperative BVL joined the group some two years ago.
Since that time, Blue Whale has made decent progress internationally, although the majority of volumes remain on the domestic market. For the coming season, the company anticipates a similar volume to last year’s average crop.
“The main variety we are working with is Angelys, a variety discovered in the Angers area and developed mainly in France and Italy,” said export manager Marc Peyres. “Since it is a very tasty variety, we have started to export with some success, especially to the US in the last two seasons. We are also packing some Comice and Conference.”
According to Peyres, the Angelys variety equally has potential in markets including the UK and the Middle East.
“We have done some trials in these markets, and we see interest in this variety due to its taste,' he said. “After two seasons of working with pears at Blue Whale, we have now decided to develop production further. We will have some new plantations in the next two seasons in order to have enough fruit for our future market development.”
