Although an official forecast is yet to be released, the Northwest Pear Bureau is optimistic volume this season will meet the previous four-year average.
The NWPB reports the 2023 Northwest fresh pear crop could be in the 15.5 million carton range.
The 2022 crop was initially forecast in September last year at just over 16 million cartons but ended up at just over 14 million cartons, Moffitt said. Snow during pollination hurt yields and led to some fruit drop in 2022, resulting in one of the smallest crops in 20 years.
This year the harvest began for summer varieties like starkrimson and bartletts in early August, with growers starting to pick bosc, green and red anjou in early- to mid-September. This was soon followed by specialty pears like comice, seckel, forelle and concorde pears.