05/19/05 Pear marketing referendum passes

The results are in on the recent pear grower voter referendum to combine the Winter Pear Control Committee and Northwest Fresh Bartlett Marketing Committee into one federal marketing order. MOFFITT: It did pass by a pretty good margin. In fact, we had ninety-eight per cent of those voting voted for it, and in terms of volume, ninety-nine per cent of the volume voting in the referendum voted for combining the two marketing orders and pulling all pears under one federal marketing order. According to Kevin Moffitt of Pear Bureau Northwest, that means both fresh and processed pears will be covered under this new marketing order. So now that pear growers have agreed to this, now it is time to implement the newly combined order. MOFFITT: And there are a lot of logistics that have to occur now especially if we want to have this in place for the upcoming crop season. So what we're doing now is there are elections that will be held in the different growing districts for the growers, and processors, and shippers, who will make up the prospective committees who run the marketing order. Moffitt says it is hoped the committees will be in place by next month's Pear Industry meetings in Portland, giving them time to approve marketing and promotion budgets going into the 2005-2006 crop season.