The teardrop explodes

D’Anjou pears have traditionally been viewed as the “hardware” of the sector by north-west US growers and their customers alike. But the teardrop-shaped variety, in both its red and green forms, has undergone a dramatic transition in many domestic quarters, thanks to widespread preconditioning of the fruit. The ripened fruit has also made limited headway internationally, but now the US industry wants the rest of the world to follow its lead and embrace preconditioning. Tommy Leighton visited the states of Oregon and Washington to find out more.