Pac NW pear canning industry down to just 3

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Then there were three. After failing recently to acquire the bankrupt Snokist Growers of Yakima, Wash., Truitt Brothers of Salem, Ore., is bowing out of pear canning.

Truitt Brothers is urging its 50 growers to do business with Northwest Packing of Vancouver, Wash.

The Capital Press reports (http://bit.ly/KMXsPf ) that also still in the pear canning game are Del Monte Foods of San Francisco, which operates a plant in Yakima, and Independent Foods of Yakima, which primarily cans pears that it grows.

Jay Grandy of the Washington-Oregon Canning Pear Association recently announced a new three-year price agreement.

Del Monte and Northwest Packing will pay growers $260 per ton for field run No. 1 grade pears this year. That’s up from $256 last season. The price will increase to $266 per ton in 2013 and $272 in 2014.

The Capital Press says Independent Foods apparently was not a party to the agreement.

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Information from: Capital Press, http://www.capitalpress.com/