Topfruit
Randolf Aaldijk, Origin Fruit Direct:
“After two good months, the South African pear market has done a 180” This year’s European pear harvest was the lowest in 20 years. Stocks were also much lower on March 1st than at the same time last year. That boded well for Southern Hemisphere pear trading. At least on paper. In practice, however, the opposite seems true: few imported pears are coming in, and prices are low.
“T
he first two months of the year went huge delays in arrivals - “sometimes no well,” says Randolf Aaldijk, director ships dock, and then two arrive at once” of Origin Fruit Direct. This Dutch compa- and supermarkets’ preferring local pears. ny has been importing fruit for the Euro- “We focus on blushed pears for the wholepean market from a large South African sale market but certainly aren’t one of the grower since 2006. It now carries a wide largest pear importers. The supermarkets range - with an emphasis on citrus, gra- prefer local green pears, primarily Conferpes, and exotic fruits - with arrivals from ence,” he says. South America as well. “Sales of the first two containers we got from South Africa “But, there are hardly any locally-grown went great. Those sales are now, however, blushed pears.” Randolf also knows that very disappointing.” in southern Europe, Williams is preferred, and Packham’s Triumph – which, with a According to Randolf, this decline is due share of more than 30% is the most grown to several factors: the loss of Belarus as a variety in the southern hemisphere - will market, difficult market access to Russia, only get a chance in Europe when Confer-
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ence pears reach their end. But, “Conference pears are here to stay; they’re not going anywhere,” he says.
The World Apple and Pear Association (WAPA) figures show that the European Union’s pear harvest was 26% lower than in 2020. That was due to late spring frost. About 1.67 billion kilograms were picked. In Italy, the EU’s leading pear-growing country, 500 million kgs less were harvested than the ten-year average. WAPA expects there will also be six percent fewer pears this year in the Southern Hemisphere. Argentina and South Africa are the main growing countries, with about 500 million kilos each. South Africa’s slightly rising yields marginally offset Argentina’s smaller crop. Chile and Australia are major players too. Europe has become a difficult market for South African pears due to a myriad of reasons: logistical problems, sustainabil-
