"This year's crop is expected to last into November"

The picking of the new Belgian Qtee® pear crop is now complete. "The last batches went in on Monday and Tuesday. Fortunately, just in time for the heat wave. That's good for the fruit, but certainly also for the workers, who would otherwise have been in the fields in this heat. Meanwhile, sorting and sales have begun," says Kris Wouters of Devos-Wouters.

"It means we can now also start full sales to all customers," he continues. "Before this, we worked with Spanish Qtee for about three weeks, but not all customers want to use Spanish pears and prefer to wait until the Belgian ones arrive. This is mainly because some retailers are still selling South African Forelle, for example, and prefer to continue with that until the Belgian Qtee is available, rather than switch briefly to Spanish pears. Qualitatively, there is little difference between Spanish and Belgian fruit, or at least none that consumers would notice."

Now the company can fully focus on the Belgian season. "And that does look very positive," Kris confirms. "The exact figures are still hard to give, but where last year we harvested around 80 percent of a normal year, this year we expect closer to 110 percent. The acreage has increased slightly this year, with some young trees added, but it has also been a very positive growing season. I've already heard growers talk about a record harvest."

"In any case, it's a welcome change. Not least because in previous years, supermarkets sometimes asked if we could supply longer. The season usually ended in early or mid-October, but this year, provided demand remains similar to previous years, we'll be able to continue until early or mid-November. Consumers will surely appreciate that. Besides, the quality is also very good. Sugar content and colour, thanks in part to the warm and dry weather, are much better than last year. This will only support sales."

Top harvest in organic
As a result, he has no doubts about sales. "We supply a large number of supermarkets throughout Europe.

We also receive many requests from outside Europe every year, but we don't really respond to those. Why put pears in a container for 5 to 6 weeks when we can sell them locally for a very good price? It's more of a reserve option. What we do each year is send the smaller pears, under 60 mm, to the Middle East. Last year, there were very few, but this year, we do see more of these sizes from certain plots without irrigation. It's nice that we can market them in a good way too."

Besides conventional production, Qtee is also very suitable for organic cultivation. "There we see the same positive situation as in conventional pears. Whereas the Conference variety was a bit disappointing in organic this year, the Qtee showed no problems. It's a top harvest, which means I expect they will also last longer than in previous years. That's a great development."

Benefits after merging
All in all, the company looks forward to the new season with confidence, now operating under the new name Devos-Wouters since 1 August. "That transition has gone quite smoothly. Of course, it took a lot of organisation to get everything aligned. We did work on an equal footing, but you can't merge two companies overnight. It required a lot of energy, but everything has now come together well. And that, especially with the new season, can only be positive. It also gives us new opportunities in marketing. For example, in addition to the Qtee with blush, we also have pears with little or no red colouring. These are still class 1 Qtee pears, which we sell under the Celina brand. They just lack the blush, so not every customer is interested. We still have work to do to show people they have the same delicious taste as Qtee, just without the colour. Personally, I hope that with our expanded customer base, we can also find a good market for these pears this season."

For more information:
Kris Wouters
Devos-Wouters
+32 16 77 97 58
[email protected]
www.woutersfruit.be