Columbia Marketing International, headquartered in Wenatchee, WA, plans to introduce its new Sweet Gourmet Pears program this season. The company’s new high-graphic packaging will include gourmet photos of pear recipes and a QR code that links to CMI’s culinary center, where all the recipes for pears can be found. A new two-box shipper, comfortably housing two-pound pear pouch bags, will also be introduced. Sweet Gourmet Pears will also be sold in bulk with supporting POS materials and high-graphic packaging.

Sales Representative Mike Nicholson provided The Produce News with a snapshot of the status of pear production in 2013. “[The crop is] coming along nicely at this point,” he stated. “We have dodged any major weather events such as hail and heavy frost at bloom. So it looks like a good commercial crop.

Columbia Marketing International maintains a culinary center which can be accessed by consumers interested in getting recipes that incorporate pears into tasty dishes. (Photo courtesy of Columbia Marketing International)Heat experienced during early and mid-July helped size up the Bartlett crop. “We should have more 70-80’s this year than last year since Bartletts like heat,” Nicholson stated. “Also, the Bartlett crop was hand-thinned prior to this warm weather. So that helped as well.”

The Bartlett harvest will ramp up in the Wenatchee District around Aug. 19 and conclude by the end of the month. “D’Anjou harvest likely will get going the first week of September and go on for a good three to four weeks due to different elevations in the Wenatchee River and northern districts where most of the pears are grown,” he continued. “Bosc harvest will likely get underway the week of Sept. 16 and continue for a couple of weeks depending upon location.”

Nicholson expects winter pear sizing will peak around 80s to 100s. “The D’Anjous are cropped pretty heavily,” he continued. “So there could be a few more 110-135s here in the Wenatchee District than last year.”

The company anticipates an increase of approximately 20 percent with both Bartletts and winter pears this season when compared to last year. “The Northwest pear crop is estimated to be down 5 percent or so on Green Bartletts and up 5-10 percent on the winter pears [Anjou, Bosc, Comice, Seckels, etc.] There is a good crop in the Wenatchee District. But Hood River will be down a bit, coming off a very large crop for that district last year. But the final crop size will still vary a bit depending upon sizing between now and harvest.”

“About 6 percent of our pears are organic,” Nicholson said. “We will likely be up about 10 percent on organic pears this year vs. last year.”

In addition to good fruit size, CMI anticipates a good finish on pears.

According to Nicholson, interest in the company’s preconditioned pear program continues to grow at retail. “We are committed to helping our retail partners grow the pear category by offering conditioned pears to their customers,” he stated.

On the export side, Nicholson said CMI is excited about prospects with the opening of the Chinese market. “There is a lot of optimism in particular about red pear varieties in that market,” he stated.