The first Cape South African pears arrived in the UK last week to join a buoyant market for imported pears.
The Cape-branded Williams Bon Chretien arrived on the MOL Cullinan on January 24 and met strong demand, selling at between £10 and £11.50.
The pear season for South Africa is running one to two weeks later than normal.
Laraine Brown, advertising and promotions manager at Capespan UK, said: “The fruit from the earlier areas is expected to be a little more prone to wind marking due to climactic conditions during the growing season, but eating quality is expected to be excellent.
“Large sizes are a much lower percentage of the crop in 2008 and, with canning prices at high levels locally, it is now anticipated that exports will be lower than in the past two seasons.”
This has combined with the expectation of a late and smaller Argentine crop of Williams to mean that the imported pear market should remain buoyant for the foreseeable future.
“The first Rosemarie pears should be seen in Europe in two weeks’ time,” Brown said. “Again, expectations are for a light crop, as colour development was slow due to hot weather prior to harvest.
“Packhams will start harvesting in the next 14 days, followed by Comice. Cropping on these two varieties were highlighted pre-season as being light.
“All of these factors point to an interesting market going forward.”
The whole pear market has shown remarkable strength over the past few months, with record throughput of European Conference and Rocha, and strong sales in Comice, Abate and Kaiser, all leading to an upward movement in wholesale prices.
The new range of Century-type Asian pears from China have enjoyed a strong run, with stable prices 10-15 per cent higher than in 2007.
