Sales of the Class I English Conference pear crop to multiples are a staggering 58.6 per cent up on last year, according to English Apples & Pears (EAP) data to mid-November.
The crop is only six per cent higher than last year, with around 14,700 tonnes available in all to the UK supermarkets. Some 7,500t have already cleared, prompting fears of a variable end to the campaign for customers.
“The obvious consequence of this fantastic start is that there will not be so much Conference around later in the season,” said EAP’s Adrian Barlow. “It will vary enormously, as there are suppliers and customers whose strategies involve selling a proportion of their fruit later in the season. But I would expect there to be more imported fruit around than normal, to support any shortfall in English.”
Morrisons has dramatically increased its support for home-grown Conference, moving its share of sales from four per cent a year ago to 17 per cent in 2007. “They made it very clear that they would support English top-fruit this year, and this is a great performance,” Barlow said.
Jan Vernooj at Dutch exporter Jover said suppliers in the Netherlands are feeling this preference for UK fruit. “At the moment the UK market is very quiet for us,” he said. “We had a strong start to the season before English fruit was available in September, but then volumes reduced because of UK pears. We are definitely feeling it more this year.”
But for Fruitmasters, this season is not dramatically different to others. “Continuity for us in the UK really gets good from January onwards when the UK crop is 80 per cent sold, so then we have a good portion of the market,” said Fruitmasters’ Leonard Kampschoer.
The sales rate on pears is also pleasing to John Hopkins of Capespan. “The rate of sale is excellent and prices of Conference have remained buoyant, even though there is a large crop from the Benelux,” he said. “But with a predominance of larger fruit sizes on the continent this year, the situation towards the end of the season when English is sold out may prove interesting.”
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