The price for processing Bartlett pears grown in the Pacific Northwest has been set for the next three years. The two remaining Northwest processors that buy pears on the cash market—Del Monte Foods and Northwest Packing (part of the Neil Jones Food Company)—will pay $260 a ton for field run, No. 1 grade pears for 2012, up from $256 a ton for 2011. The price will rise to $266 per ton for the 2013 crop year and $272 for 2014. The third pear processor, Independent Foods of Yakima, Washington, does not buy on the cash market. Jay Grandy, manager of […]