Washington pear harvest worst in decades

A prolonged cold snap in January, and cooler periods that followed, have ravaged the pear crops in Oregon and Washington.

The harvest data shows that Washington farmers are likely to have the worst yield in about 40 years, said Jon DeVaney, president of the Washington State Tree Fruit Association.

“Unfortunately, because of some severe winter weather, it created some damage to the buds and blooms and blossoms, which resulted in less total fruit in the trees,” DeVaney said.

And those trees that did produce fruit often suffered rust spots on the pears.

“It’s still very edible. But because of these cosmetic issues, it means you take a loss by sending it to be packed,” DeVaney said.

Washington and Oregon together make up about 75% of pear production in the United States, according to the Northwest Horticultural Council. The value of the crops has varied from about $251 million in 2022 to about $423 million in 2017.

DeVaney said it’s too early to say how much revenue the two-state region will have produced in 2024. He noted that the yields of both states typically get lumped together because much of the packaging of the Oregon fruit is done in the Evergreen State.

The pear yield for 2024 in the Pacific Northwest is about 30% below the five-year average, he said. But that averages the losses over all the growing regions in both Washington and Oregon, he said.

“Many growers had greater losses than that. Some basically don’t have a crop,” he said. “The Wenatchee Valley production area is down about 50% from last year.”

Those growers in higher elevations were particularly hit hard, DeVaney said.

Pears generally are grown in the same fruit regions as cherries and apples. Many pears are grown along with cherries and apples in the Columbia gorge, while apples dominate the growing region of the Columbia basin.

Farmers also plant a wide variety of pears that tend to ripen at different times. As a result, some of those varieties suffered greater damage than others.

The same cold conditions also impacted both cherry production, which has already ended for the year, and apples. The same weather pattern virtually destroyed the peach crop in Green Bluff.

“We had a good cherry season, but there was some damage in the higher-altitude cherries,” DeVaney said.

Many growers in the Wenatchee area grow in higher elevations and use their later harvest to ensure they can market the last cherries available on the market. But the cold snap hurt many of those plans, DeVaney said.

“We wrapped up the cherry season by mid-August. Some years, it can extend into late August,” he said. “We had a constant supply, but smaller than we would otherwise.”

The apple harvest is now underway.

“The crop is smaller than it was last year,” DeVaney said of apples. The cold snap “affected some varieties, but it was less severe than for pears.”

Growers use microclimates and elevation changes as well as different varieties in an effort to stagger their harvests, he said.

“If all varieties are being harvested at one time, that would be a big labor challenge,” DeVaney said. “If you can get varieties harvested at different times, you can offer work for your cherries in summer, pears and early apples in August and September, and later varieties of apples in October.

“So, you can offer many more months of work to your crews, which is a much more attractive proposition.”