Poland: pear prices remain high but lower than a year ago

Warsaw - In the firsts days of March, pear prices remain high but lower than at the same time in 2006. Pears were bought for 0,54-0,60 €/kg depending on variety. According to the forecasts, prices should achieve the level of previous year by the end of the current season. Poland isn’t an important pear producer in the EU (pear production doesn’t exceed 10% of total apple production), but is still the largest among the new member countries. The 2006 crop amounted to around 60 thousand MT.

Conference' remains the main Polish pear variety.

The main varieties grown in Poland are ‘Conference’, ‘Alexander Lucas’ and ‘Clapp’s Favourite’, but growers are interested in new varieties, especially selections coming from Czech Republic (‘Dicolor’, ‘Erika’, ‘Amfora’. ‘Dicolor’), Sweden (‘Carola’) and Ukraine (‘Nayabrskaya’ – its fruits can be stored until the end of May in conventional storage). Modern orchards with 1500-2000 trees per hectare and quince used as rootstock can achieve a crop of 30 MT per hectare.

Source: FreshPlaza Correspondent Poland