Though increasing production of pears in Europe has caused U.S. pear shipments to Europe to decline in the past several years, recent EU regulations are likely to reduce those shipments to zero.
“We're looking at potentially not having a commercial pear program in Europe this upcoming season,” said Jeff Correa, international marketing director for Pear Bureau Northwest. Increasing competition from European pear growers had been cutting into the market share for American pear growers, with U.S. pear shipments to Europe dropping 27 percent from the previous year to 69,000 boxes. But Correa explained that minimum residue regulations regarding diphenylamine, a widely-used chemical in the U.S., could effectively end their pear shipments to Europe.
“Regulations regarding DPA, a chemical that's used on apples and pears to prevent scald, have been set at a level that makes us think we can't send any fruit to Europe,” said Correa. “The fruit would reach those levels just from the residue contained in fruit bins, so we don't think we can send any fruit to Europe.” To make up for the drop in exports to Europe, the Northwest Pear industry is going to increase its focus on a mix of markets that includes Latin America, Asia, Brazil, India, China and Russia. While China is promising, because the potential for growth is great considering shipments of pears only began arriving there last year, India and Russia could prove more difficult.
“Growth is limited in India because of high tariffs there,” said Correa, “and the situation in Ukraine is something we continue to monitor.” While he hopes strained relations between the United States and Russia over Ukraine don't result in trade sanctions that could affect pear shipments, he acknowledges that could happen. That would be unfortunate, considering that Russia is the third-largest market for U.S. pears, which would make American producers feel the loss of the European market more acutely.
“Europe used to be such a good market for us,” said Correa. “But market dynamics have changed, and we will move on to other pastures.”
