With difficulties such as the brown marmorated stink bug hitting the Italian pear market, the supply chain is to gather together to focus on new commercial opportunities for the industry.
The FuturPera World Pear Forum convention will be taking place on Friday 29 November and will focus on commercial prospects and new market opportunities to find new ways of promoting the product, despite the difficulties of this year and the low volume.
“This year the World Pear Forum will look at crucial technical and agricultural issues, such as the battle against brown spotting and the brown marmorated stink bug,” said Stefano Calderoni, Chairman of FuturPera. “Because eradicating these pests is fundamental for us to continue producing our top quality pears and guaranteeing good product quality for the market. But the new defence strategies must go hand in hand with marketing strategies and finding new market outlets.
“Even if there is a shortage of the product this year and it will be complicated to solve the problem of the brown marmorated stink bug, we mustn’t stop working on opening up the routes for our pears to travel around the world. Because I am certain that we will start producing top quality pears again and reaching the critical mass to satisfy Italian and foreign demand.”
The convention will have Italian and international experts in attendance.
“We have sent to the forum all the most significant players in the supply chain and at FuturPera we will meet representatives of the European and Italian large-scale distribution chains as the price issue has now become crucial,” Calderoni continued. “Pear growers have had significant losses on the product and must attempt to restore productivity which they can only do if the supply chain attributes value to pears on the market.
“Therefore we will make an appeal to those who purchase and distribute fruit: to choose and promote Italian pear growing. This is how our supply chain, which has essential socio-economic value for the local area, can continue to produce and tackle future challenges”.
