Pear growers in Oregon's Hood River Valley are tallying up the damage from the 2025 season, with industry estimates landing between $40 million and $45 million in losses. The season opened with Bartlett pears entering an already oversupplied market, which crushed prices from the start. Growers never caught a break as the season wore on.
Oregon and Washington together produce the vast majority of domestic fresh pears, making Hood River Valley's struggles a supply chain issue for buyers across the country. When margins get this tight, growers start making hard decisions — fewer acres planted, less investment in quality inputs, or exiting the category altogether. Any of those outcomes tightens future supply.
For buyers sourcing domestic pears, this is a signal to stay close to your grower relationships and watch for shifts in available volume heading into 2026 and beyond. There's also a broader story here about the fragility of commodity pear economics when market timing goes wrong.