Offshore demand is a lot less for Bartlett and Bosc varieites because they are more perishable than D'Anjous, he said. Last year 34,200 tons of Bartletts were produced throughout the Wenatchee District and this year the projection drops to 26,900 tons, according to Kelly. It was a record year. Bartlett pears were finished in August with good quality, but trees dropped a lot of fruit in the first part of June, making the volume lower. This year the projection is 427,000 cartons of Bosc to be produced as compared to a five-year record high 670,000 cartons produced last year in the Wenatchee District, said Kelly.
Bosc pears are a winter pear with long necks and are covered with a brown russeting.
Bosc pears sell in mid-season, December through March, according to Chapman. We didn't see much problem with the hot weather on the pears, even though it might have been a factor of the numbers being down. Mid-summer hot weather didn't have much impact on the quality of the crop, but the heat is not believed to have contributed to the lower volume of fruit, said growers. Sunburn was not as much of a problem for the pear crop as it appears to be for apples.