Del Monte Foods canning plant closure disrupts Northwest fresh pear market 

When Del Monte Foods, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July, closed its pear cannery in Yakima, WA earlier this year, growers were concerned.

Now that the pear season is underway, the closure is showing its effects on the market. 

Jon DeVaney, president of the Washington State Tree Fruit Association, said many growers were blindsided by the move. 

“Growers had to then struggle to find alternate customers,” DeVaney told the Wenatchee World. “If you were a pear grower growing for the canning market, it created a lot of dislocation.”

DeVaney told the news source that contracts were canceled just weeks before harvest, leaving some growers without options. Pears intended for canning are grown and sized specifically for that use unlike apples or cherries. Smaller fruit, which is peeled and processed, doesn’t meet fresh market expectations. 

“What is ideal sizing for going into a can is not necessarily the same as what is ideal sizing for fresh consumers,” DeVaney said. “So that has led to some increased supply in the market this year, and it was already a large crop.”

Fruit once destined for cans has flooded into fresh channels, pushing down prices for Bartletts and other fresh pear varieties, the Wenatchee World reports. For many growers, it means a crop that’s less valuable at a time when costs to produce and harvest remain high. 

It’s also a crop that USA Pears projects to be 60 percent larger than last year.

“It’s not easy to just flip a switch and say, well, I’ll grow something else,” DeVaney said. “Pear trees are long-lived and slow to get to full maturity, so the dislocation the industry is feeling right now is particularly harsh.” 

Industry leaders sought the federal government’s help, urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to make emergency purchases of fresh and canned pears.  

The USDA responded quickly with up to $20 million for Northwest Bartlett pear growers, in the form of a Section 32 purchase. 

The Wenatchee World reports Del Monte Foods had been the dominant player in the Northwest’s canning industry, typically handling about two-thirds of Washington and Oregon’s processing volume. The closest cannery is in Vancouver, WA and the second is in California. Its exit leaves just one major canner in the region, Northwest Packing Company, owned by Neil Jones Food Company. 

Del Monte’s assets are reportedly up for sale, raising the possibility that another company could reopen the cannery.  

But for now, growers face difficult decisions, reports the Wenatchee World. Some may retool their practices to produce larger fruit for the fresh market. Others may reconsider whether to grow pears for processors at all.