Report Highlights:
As China's #2 fruit produce, Ya Pears and its exports have become a matter of national pride for exporters and government officials. The U.S.'s current production of Asian pears is sufficiently supplying current U.S. market demand for Asian pears, including Ya pears. China currently exports less than 15% of the country's fresh pear production to the world. The average American citizen eats only 3 pounds of fresh pears a year compared to 19 pounds of fresh apples.
China and the World’s Pear Market
China is the world’s top producer and consumer of pears. In 2004, China produced 10,642,287 metric tons (MT), or 65%, of the world’s pears. Although China produces a high volume of pears, the majority of the pears are domestically consumed. In 2004 only 15%, or 318,030 MT were exported to the world.
Most of China’s pears are of the Asian pear family, different from their western counterparts. As a result they do not compete directly with U.S. pears or apples, although these are the closest substitutes. China primarily exports pears to countries in the Southeast Asia region of the world. There are many types of pears that are considered Asian pears; among them is the Chinese Ya pear, which is the variety focus for this report. The pears are named Ya, which means duck in the Mandarin dialect of Chinese due to the way the stem of the plant grows.
In 2004, while Ya pears accounted for 20% (2,114,721 MT) of China’s total pears produced, only 7% (155,070 MT) were exported and the rest consumed domestically.However, according to export figures Ya pears made up an impressive 49% of the total exported pears.Similar to other Chinese varieties, Ya pears are primarily exported to neighboring countries in Southeast Asia.As of October 2005, China exported $31.6 million of Ya Pears; nearly half of which was imported by Vietnam ($9.6 million) and Indonesia ($7.2 million).