Due to severe frosts and hailstorms throughout the main pear-producing countries on the continent, European pear volumes have taken a drastic hit this season. The World Apple and Pear Association (WAPA) confirms that forecasts made at the start of the season in September - which were bleak to say the least - are so far on track, with the exception of Belgium, which has produced even less than its predicted 38 per cent yield decrease.
In total, European pear production in the 2008-09 season will be down by approximately 14 per cent compared to the season before, to 2.161 million tonnes. This figure is 16 per cent lower than the average crop over the past three years, making it a particularly bad year for production.
In the EU, only Spain is due to harvest relatively stable volumes of pears this season, with a slight increase of three per cent on the previous season. But top producer Italy, as well as France, the Netherlands and Belgium are all down in yields, with Italy’s pear production dropping by 18 per cent, France by 29 per cent, the Netherlands by 33 per cent and Belgium by 40 per cent. UK pear production is forecast to fall by 15 per cent.
Variety-wise, WAPA predicts that UK consumer favourite Conference will see a decline of 22 per cent to 641,000t this season, but it still remains the largest variety, representing close to 30 per cent of pear production in Europe.
Williams, which holds 14 per cent of total European pear production, will be down by six per cent to 302,000t. Abate Fetel, which represents almost 12 per cent of production and is a favourite in Italy, but less well known in the UK, is expecting a decrease of 21 per cent to 257,000t. Elsewhere in the northern hemisphere, crops have also decreased compared to last year, namely in Switzerland with a 43 per cent drop, in Turkey by five per cent and in the US, which will see a 12 per cent decrease.
Most of Europe experienced temperatures lower than the seasonal average in April, when pear trees were blossoming, and endured rainfall and some hailstorms in the growing season, which stunted growth and meant that a lot of pears did not reach their full potential. Belgium was hit particularly hard. A five-day frost in the country’s main pear-producing areas - the Haspengouw-Hageland region and Sint Niklaas, near Antwerp - hit the country at Easter for the first time.
“The frost we experienced in March really affected the blossoming period,” says Etienne Leclere, commercial director at Belgian auction Veiling Haspengouw. “The frost affected the whole country and therefore our main growing regions were hit badly. We only have 60 per cent of the volume we produced last year.”
Belgium has approximately 7,000 hectares dedicated to pear orchards and around 250 pear growers. Some 80 per cent of the country’s production is exported, with 15 per cent of that going to the UK market. Conference makes up 80 per cent of the Belgian pear crop, with Comice accounting for 10-15 per cent.
“Conference is our main variety and it looks like it will stay that way for a long time,” says Leclere. “Comice is a difficult pear variety to grow, but we do small smaller sizes - 65s-70s - to the UK market in the middle of the season.”
The Netherlands is also experiencing low yields, but Dutch growers’ group The Greenery is optimistic. “Until now, the Dutch pear season has seen a good start,” says the company’s product manager for apples and pears, Bert Wilschut. “The volume of pears is lower than last year. The few days of frost in the budding period have led to a lower average of buds per square metre. But, although the volume has decreased, quality this year is very good.”
The Greenery has a year-round programme for pears. Its Doyenne du Comice pears are available from October until the end of February or early March. Conference pears are available from October until September.
The company’s 300-strong grower base is located across the Netherlands, with many in the province of Noord-Holland, in the middle of the Netherlands around Utrecht, and in the province of Zeeland. The Greenery has doubled its export market share of pears in the last three years and the UK is one of its three core markets.
Many believe that the decline in pear production and in particular Conference this season will lead the UK market out of its comfort zone to other pear varieties to satisfy demand.
“The US will try to fill the gap partially,” says Frédéric Rosseneu, policy adviser at WAPA. “The country had a moderate crop and should be able to increase exports and replace popular varieties on the continent, which will be interesting to see in the UK.”
The UK market mainly sources pears from the Netherlands and Belgium, and to a lesser extent France and Spain, so availability of pears in the UK market is low.
According to Eddie Fleming at UK importer Total Produce, around 25 per cent of the European crop - mainly from the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany - has been sold already, which means the amount of pears in storage will be significantly reduced. “The better grade pears go into storage because they can hold a good condition and the not so good have been sold very quickly,” he says. “This means that it is going to be a very tight season. There has been a particular lack of small fruit on the market, so this may create good opportunities for growers outside the EU.”
Quality is generally good across all European pear-producing countries, with Italian and French Williams turning heads. The exception has been Spain, where varieties have suffered.
“The quality of Dutch pears has so far been excellent,” says Wilschut. “The Netherlands experiences competition from its neighbouring country Belgium, as it has a strong production of Conference too. However, this has always been the case and has not prevented The Greenery from growing in the past.
“Furthermore, we see a temporary increase in competition from Portugal, which has had an exceptional harvest of Rocha pears.”
Back in August, at Prognosfruit, hosted by English Apples & Pears (EAP) in Kent, German price and marketing authority ZMP’s Helwig Schwartau said European pear producers were set to enjoy a strong season with high prices. At that point, early pears were seeing a 25 per cent boost in prices, as frost, rainfall and low temperatures in the growing period across western Europe conspired to push down volumes. But has this been the case so far?
High prices do seem to have saved the pear industry this season, especially in Belgium. “The prices are very high,” says Leclere. “They are somewhere in between €0.90 (77p) and €1 for a pear at the moment and that is the price we reached at the end of last season. I am not sure if it will continue to rise, especially given the global financial situation; but price has doubled on this time last year.
“It is good news for growers, but there is only half as much to sell, so they are pretty much coming out with the same amount of money in their pockets.”
However, Rosseneu believes that the bar was set too high early on, and says overall prices have dropped a little recently because growers were holding stock back, waiting for higher prices that never materialised.
“Prices are better now, but some of the really high prices predicted at Prognosfruit have not happened,” he explains. “We have had no complaints about prices and as long as the price covers the cost of production, growers seem more than happy.”
Last year, there were reports that apple growers in Europe were switching from apple to pear cultivation, but the industry seems to be levelling out again, according to WAPA. “Apples were low in price compared to pears in both Belgium and the Netherlands, and a lot of switching from apples to pears started to happen,” explains Rosseneu. “But I do not think this still applies this year and we have not seen any effect. As soon as pear prices dropped a little last year, it put an end to it. Conference declined in price for the first time last year, which was quite unusual, and that made many growers think twice.
“The big problem for businesses is that switching crops means considerable investment, as new orchards cost a lot of money. Now, in general, there is a greater availability of pears on the market, which brought the drop in price last year,” he says.
“For the full effect, we will have to wait three to four years to see the impact. But it is certainly a positive move that some growers are switching, because it is adjusting to what the marketplace wants.”
But as the European pear industry looks to the future, lack of innovation and promotion in the sector may cause problems in the long term. Rosseneu believes that European growers may be doing themselves a disservice by relying on the ever-popular Conference pear.
“There are a lot of new apple varieties being marketed and heritage orchards being developed, and it is worrying that pears have not seen that innovation take place yet,” says Rosseneu. “There have been some new plantings in Europe, but they are mainly of Conference pears. There is strong demand for this crop, but it may not remain so popular in the coming years.”
Better3Fruit (read Better Tree Fruit), a Belgian company that started life as part of Katholieke Universiteit Leuven looking into apple varieties, embarked on a project to breed new varieties of pears three years ago, in response to the belief that pears are going to be a more important market than apples in the future. Willy Dillen, the company’s chief executive, aims to open up the European pear sector with new markets and niches, and believes pear growers are missing out on many opportunities by sticking to one variety. “The major goal of our breeding programme is to make pears more appealing to consumers and make them stand out on the shelf. We are looking into blush pears and fruit with strong colour.
“We are also working on the eating quality of pears. People want a pear that eats like an apple. They do not want juice running down their hands when they eat a piece of fruit. It is far too inconvenient for today’s consumer.”
Better3Fruit has just planted the project’s first greening trees, which will bear fruit in two to three years’ time. The company has planted 10,000 seedlings of potential varieties, but Dillen maintains that the process is very difficult and that the project is likely to produce two varieties for commercial use in approximately seven years’ time.
“One day, Europe’s fixation with Conference is going to go wrong,” he says. “Maybe on the marketing side, or - and I hope this does not happen - maybe agriculturally, as some major disease could wipe Conference crops out. We need diversity in both apple and pear cultivation. Growers do not have the option to really diversify at the moment -that is why pear breeding is necessary. There is a demand from consumers for novelty and high-quality fruit and this is the way the industry should go in the future.
“It is time for growers and co-operatives to innovate and listen carefully to what consumers want and adapt to that,” Dillen adds. “It will not be hard to convince consumers to buy new varieties, but we will have to convince the retailers. Only this will bring a more sustainable future for European pears.”
The Greenery is also looking to the future and is very actively promoting a new variety called Sweet Sensation. The company believes that the pear variety shows great potential and maintains that several of the retailers that it has run trials with have described the red, sweet-tasting pear as a “welcome addition to the shelf”. Around 120,000 Sweet Sensation trees are being planted and The Greenery plans to have 420ha under cultivation by 2012, allowing the company to have commercial volumes at its disposal by 2010.
“The most popular variety in the UK is the Conference pear,” says Wilschut. “For Dutch suppliers, the market has not changed all that much. However, we are starting to see some changes in the market. At the moment, the first effects of the financial crisis are starting to show. But this is a temporary change.
“What is more important is that we see that the pear market in general still has a lot of potential and that there is demand for innovation. Answering this demand for innovation is exactly what The Greenery is doing at the moment by introducing new varieties like the Sweet Sensation,” he adds.
Rosseneu believes there is still a lot of work to do on the promotional side, throughout Europe as well as in the UK. “There has been some development on the side of pear ripening and the industry needs to increase its ready-to-eat offer,” he says. “People want pears that have been ripened beforehand, and do not want to wait four to five days to eat the fruit.
“The research has been done, but it has not really been taken up in the UK. The supply chain needs to be convinced and retailers need to realise that it is a good idea. At the moment, they concentrate on the shelf life and waste issues of having ripe pears in the aisles.
“In Italy, there has been a lot of promotional material distributed and it has worked. We are trying to do this in the US and hoping to do so with the rest of Europe. It will increase consumption and consumer satisfaction.”
The Greenery agrees. “It has been said that pears have not had the same attention as a category as apples have,” Wilschut admits. “In certain areas, this is true. Apples have received more attention in the past, with the introduction of new varieties, and bigger marketing and promotional budgets. The Greenery has taken it upon itself to change that. Our commitment to new pear varieties and innovation in this segment shows that we are convinced of the potential of this product category. We have always directed marketing and promotional efforts towards pears too, but with the introduction of new varieties, we are confident of strengthening our growth in pears.”
But with the production level of European pears down this season, what does this mean for the future of pear cultivation in Europe? The Greenery is undeterred.
“We face a temporary setback in terms of production,” says Wilschut. “In itself, this is not dramatic. Fluctuation in terms of production is inherent to industries that are dependent on variables like the weather. We are confident that pear cultivation has a strong future ahead; the market still has good potential.”
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