US pear production is forecast to fall 15% this year to 660,000 tons, the third-smallest harvest in more than 50 years, according to USDA's Fruit and Tree Nuts Outlook released on 24 September. Since 1972 only 2024 (551,000 tons) and 2022 (648,000 tons) were smaller.

All three West Coast states that lead pear production are down: Washington to 320,000 tons, 4% below last year's bumper crop, and Oregon and California to 210,000 and 120,000 tons, both down 23%. A lighter fruit set in the Pacific Northwest cut yields but produced larger fruit.

Lesley Tamura, chairwoman of Columbia Gorge Fruit Growers, said pears were cleaner this season with less pressure from psylla, but she is again hearing of poor prices for farmers. The share of the crop going to processing stays near historic lows: about half from the 1970s to the early 1990s, 18% in 2025. After becoming a net pear importer for the first time in 2024-25, the US regained net exporter status in 2025-26, with exports up 56% to 248 million pounds, nearly all to Mexico and Canada, while imports fell 29%.

The apple crop is forecast 6% lower at 10.4 billion pounds, the smallest since 2022, with Washington supplying 7.4 billion. A spring freeze in the mid-Atlantic states is expected to push prices up. Fresh apple exports in 2025-26 reached 1.87 billion pounds, about a quarter of fresh output, and a record $1.16 billion in value, 12% more than a year earlier.

Winegrape harvests in California and Washington are projected 5% lower and Oregon's 16% lower, while the US cranberry crop should grow 5%, with Oregon up 6% to 560,000 barrels. The report is by Kyle Odegard.

Photo: Gary Halvorson, Oregon State Archives / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

Source: Capital Press