The April freeze in California’s mountain district will reduce this season’s pear volumes, according to the California Pear Advisory Board.
Growers told the Packer that “the March bloom period was excellent, due to adequate winter dormancy, but the cold front that swept down from Canada along the West Coast in late April thinned out the blooms on some of the mountain acreage. Frost protection efforts were helpful, but growers were not able to totally abate the damage.”
This year’s harvest will drop by about 15,000 tonnes, with current CPAB estimates at 186,000t of Bartletts and 11,800t of varietals.
“Our estimates might be a little inflated,” Chris Zanobini, the board’s executive director, told the Packer. “With fresh pears we’ll definitely have less volume than last year, particularly in Bartletts. We’re estimating 3.2 million boxes of Bartletts this year.”Approximately 2.1m boxes of Bartletts should come from the river district and 1.1m boxes from the mountain district.
“The biggest difference we’re seeing going into this year is that the percentage of river district pears is much greater than historical averages, which indicates the mountain district did suffer from the frost and will show in lower packouts for the fresh market,” said Zanobini.
