Europe’s pear production begins slow recovery

Volumes in Italy and France set to rebound after weather-affected campaign, but growers in Belgium, Netherlands and Spain expect significant decline in production

A notable increase in Italy’s production will contribute to a modest overall recovery in the size of the EU pear crop for 2024/25, the World Apple & Pear Association has confirmed.

However, a major downturn in expected volumes in Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain mean the region’s new-season crop will be just 1.79m tonnes – 4.9 per cent above last year’s record low production but well below its traditional level in excess of 2m tones, Fruitnet informs.

Europe’s largest pear producer Italy is expected to supply 405,000 tonnes of the fruit next season, a dramatic recovery from last year’s 184,000 tonnes, which was around 60 per cent lower than in 2022 due to frost, flood, and hail damage.

France has also recovered from a weather-hampered crop in 2023 to produce an estimated 119,000 tonnes. Although that figure is 15.7 per cent up on the three-year average, it remains well below the country’s real production potential.

Read also: Belgian pear cultivation hit by pseudomonas bacteria

Elsewhere in Europe, larger crops are expected in Portugal (124,000 tonnes, up 10.1 per cent) and Greece (84,000 tonnes, up 38.1 per cent).

However, lower output is predicted in Belgium, down 26.6 per cent to 280,000 tonnes, and in the Netherlands, down 8.7 per cent to 327,000 tonnes.

The Spanish pear crop is forecast to fall 14.8 per cent to 244,000 tonnes.

“We are seeing more and more club varieties,” commented AMI analyst Ursula Schockemoehle, who revealed that the number of branded pears in the German market had more than doubled in two years.

“There is demand in the supermarkets for high-quality pears, and this is an important opportunity,” she observed. “As we have seen with avocados or flat peaches, consumers are willing to pay quite a high price for something that is better.”