Belgian Conference pear primed for growth

Belgian exporters are currently setting up programmes for the new Conference pear season and readying shipments for global markets, including Asia, according to Marc Evrard of Belgian Fruit Valley. “The quality of the fruit is good this season,” he says, “better than last year. Everything is looking good when it comes to taste, Brix and the size of the fruit.” Evrard reveals that current prices may not be as high as last season, but doesn’t consider this a major problem. “I think for some export markets, the fruit is still rather expensive,” he says. The Conference pear is the main Belgian export to the Asian region, and efforts are constantly being made to open up new markets for the product. “Thailand only opened up for Belgian Conference pears a couple of months ago, so our exporters are targeting that market at the moment,” says Laurent De Smedt of cooperative BelOrta. “Next season we want to have at least 10-20 containers there to start opening up the market. We are also ...