Growers and marketers share insights at Washington State Tree Fruit Association’s meeting, highlight labor costs and lack of young buyers
THE GORGE — “When you’re in a negative economic situation, it’s really easy to just tense up and feel that the situation is out of your control,” said Jon DeVaney, president of the Washington State Tree Fruit Association (WSTFA). “But here, just talking to your peers and saying, ‘Are you feeling this too? Yeah, it sucks. Let’s get through it together,’ can be really helpful.”
Earlier this month, growers from across the region flocked to Wenatchee for WSTFA’s 121st Annual Meeting and Northwest Hort Expo, an amalgamation of Spanish and English-language trainings, booths showcasing new technology, and discussions led by industry experts about their research, experience or otherwise.
The afternoon of Dec. 9, the expo’s second of three days, was devoted to pears. Marketers and retailers unpacked consumer dynamics, aiming to capitalize on the latest dietary trends, while a panel of growers, including Hood River’s Torey Schmidt, talked about challenges they’re facing.
“We are just trying to do the best job we can as minimalistically as we can. All orchard renovations and new plantings are sort of on hold,” said Schmidt, who’s also the vice president of raw product and field services at Diamond Fruit Growers. “Trying to survive is where we’re at right now.”
Despite a 78% jump in the Pacific Northwest’s total production, he explained that pear psylla, one of the fruit’s main pests, was more prolific throughout the valley this year compared to last. The panel also stressed how onerous labor costs are. For instance, a survey of Washington apple orchardists showed 99% of their returns went toward labor in 2023, when there was an especially tough market for growers.
But those responsible for putting fruit on grocery store shelves, and getting it off the trees, repeatedly harped on a different, more demographic problem: virtually nobody under the age of 35 buys pears.
Hispanic and Asian people make up a disproportionate amount of sales, and although those who do buy are loyal, the percentage of households nationwide that regularly purchase pears fluctuates in the thirties, said CarrieAnn Arias, president of the Pacific Northwest’s sole pear marketer, USA Pears. By comparison, more than 80% of U.S. households purchased bananas in 2024, according to the International Fruit Association, and even cherries topped the 40% threshold.
“This younger consumer is looking for something very, very different than the older consumer,” said Arias. “We have to make sure that we’re positioning ourselves in a way that is fun and vibrant, and maybe a little self-deprecating, but uses humor and education at the same time.”
Younger generations are particularly fixated on health, she continued, pointing to declines in alcohol consumption amidst a more widespread shift away from ultra-processed foods. Jumping on wellness-related social media trends like “fibermaxxing,” a hashtag encouraging fiber consumption that meets or exceeds daily recommendations; positioning pears as a natural sweetener; or aggressively pushing into the antioxidant space currently dominated by blueberries could boost sales.
“Beauty marks are in and perfection is out,” Arias also said.
Across the board, however, consumer education is lackluster. The majority of people don’t know the difference between an Anjou or Bosc, let alone when any varieties are ripe, causing bad eating experiences that discourage future purchases. Tapping social media influencers on short-form video platforms like TikTok may help mitigate those misconceptions in younger audiences, and Arias further noted that dietitians can propel consumption by popularizing new recipes — she’s searching for the next avocado toast.
The demographic problem won’t change overnight, and neither will the burden posed by labor costs. But on the production side, an Oct. 2 announcement from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) about a rule change should provide some relief, DeVaney said.
The department calculates how much growers must pay foreign, temporary workers on H-2A visas, a federal program more readily used across Washington than Oregon (DOL data shows the agency certified 33,267 and 5,126 workers in 2025, respectively, as of press deadline on Dec. 29). Known as the “adverse effect wage rate,” it was originally intended to prevent farmers from undercutting domestic employees by hiring cheaper ones from other countries, primarily Mexico.
“You’re required to provide housing at no cost to foreign workers, and that’s not factored into a discussion about total compensation,” DeVaney said. DOL also uses payroll data from its Farm Labor Survey to set the rate, which includes overtime, bonus incentives and other factors more indicative of total earnings than hourly wages, he added.
Under the new rates, which have two skill-based tiers and were determined using different data, entry-level H2-A workers will earn, at most, $4.57 less per hour in Oregon and $3.29 less in Washington. Labor advocates, however, have denounced the rule, effective on job orders submitted after Oct. 2. Some argue that it will simply depress domestic wages, and the United Farm Workers of America filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Nov. 21.
“It’s a very significant change, and it addresses things that our growers have been complaining about,” DeVaney said. “We do want to make sure that the program is really functional, because we’re not seeing domestic workers applying for a lot of these jobs in Washington state.”
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Columbia Gorge News will cover WSTFA’s session on cherries in next week’s edition.
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