On today's episode of The Bloom, three pear professionals joined Sarah Hoxie to discuss the current state of the fruit: supply, quality and flavor were the topics of discussion.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Bob Mast, VP of Sales and Marketing for CMI, stated, “The supply this year is going to be excellent on pears. There are plenty of sizes across the board. Quality this year looks very good, much cleaner than last year, kind of trending the same way our apple crop did. I think our pack-outs will be a little bit higher than last year as a result. This is the perfect year to try to get the younger consumers more excited about the pear program."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Stemilt Marketing Director Roger Pepperl added, “A cooler summer has resulted in maybe a little loss in pear size overall. But the Anjous are mixed sizes. We have a little bit of everything for everybody. Quality is very very nice. We also We look like we’re going to be about even with last year on the summer pears, and the overall Anjou crop is up slightly from last year’s."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Kevin Moffit, President and CEO of Pear Bureau Northwest, concluded the segment, stating, “We have Bartletts and Star Crimson being harvested right now, with Anjou’s, Bosc, and the other varieties coming online shortly. Current weather’s great. We’ve got warm days and cool nights. This is sweetening the fruit. We did have a cool, wet spring, and that led to a later than normal harvest this year. We’re expecting a good, full crop, just above the five-year average. Eating quality should be excellent this year.”<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
