Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/155412
Board member for 40 years F or the past 40 years, Pat Burnett has represented growers on the board of the Pear Bureau Northwest, which promotes pears produced in Washington and Oregon. From 2011 to 2013, he was chair of the organization, which is based in Portland, Oregon. "I got started by just going down to meetings," he explained. "I really got deeply involved in it when I got into the marketing side. I felt it was a real good grower organization." He was an alternate trustee on the board starting in 1973 and has been a trustee or director since 1988. "He's had a lot of influence on issues we've been dealing with over the years," said Kevin Moffitt, Pear Board president. "He has a wealth of knowledge that we've tapped into. "He's never been shy about speaking out," Moffitt added. "It's really helpful to get board members who will make comments and let you know their opinions. That's what it's all about. We work for them, and they represent their constituents." Unlike the Washington Apple Commission, which was forced to downsize after a lawsuit challenging the mandatory assessments it collected from growers, the Pear Bureau continues to promote pears on both the domestic and export markets. Burnett said apple marketers are large enough to promote apples effectively in the domestic market without the commission, but the pear crop is distributed among a larger number of smaller players who need to work collectively through the Pear Bureau. Burnett said the Washington Pear Marketing Association, which he helped found 12 years ago, is one of the best things that h appened to the pear industry because it gives growers the legal ability to discuss pricing. "By doing that together, we've found that lowering the price doesn't move one box of fruit," Burnett said. "Most times, it slows the market down." Instead, if some shipper needs to sell a certain lot of fruit promptly, the others let them do that and don't respond by lowering their prices. Bruce Grim, manager of the Pear Marketing Association, said Burnett has been a valuable member of the association's board because of his knowledge of the industry—from growing to packing—and the people in it. "He just has great insights about the pear industry, and it's always fun and interesting to get his take on the things he sees," Grim said. "He has such a great feel for it." —G. Warner Meanwhile, his parents moved back to the Wenatchee Valley. His uncle, who was a dentist in California, bought an orchard in Leavenworth, and his father managed it. After leaving the Navy, Burnett joined his family and worked briefly in the Safeway store's produce department in Wenatchee before getting a job at Peshastin Fruit Growers (now Bluebird) loading wooden fruit boxes onto rail cars going east. He moved from there to Leavenworth Fruit, where he supervised the packing and shipping and took charge of the refrigeration. In 1972, he was hired as general manager of Peshastin Hi-Up. It was a "bitty place," at the time, Burnett recalls, with four or five grower members and annual production of about 60,000 boxes of fruit. The Peshastin lumber mill next door had closed and Burnett oversaw the purchase of the property, demolition of the mill, and expansion of the co-op. He and his wife also constructed the office in the evenings. Over the years, urnett helped the cooperative adopt new storage techB niques so that the pears could be sold later in the season when prices were higher. Since it was a small operation, he was in charge of both running the warehouse and selling the fruit. He made frequent visits to Mexico to establish relationships with buyers and hosted them when they came to Washington. When he acquired the Leavenworth orchard that had belonged to his uncle, he gained insights into the farming side of the business. photo by Apples When he began working with Hi-Up, 75 percent of the fruit it handled were apples. Burnett convinced his growers that apples could be grown anywhere, but the upper Wenatchee Valley was uniquely suited for pear production. "I haven't seen any place that's better. I think second best is probably Oregon," he said with a wry smile. Over the years, growers replaced their apple orchards with pears. Some apple orchards were removed because they didn't withstand cold damage as well as pears, but many were removed during the late 1980s and early 1990s when growing apples was not profitable. "I could see what was happening to the apples, and to be honest we probably have too many in the ground now," Burnett said, noting that by the time he left Hi-Up his 40 members weren't producing a single apple. Today, he farms 50 acres of pears at Leavenworth that his uncle used to own, and 80 acres of pears in nearby Dryden. He also has 35 acres of cherries at Fairview Canyon near Wenatchee. A few years ago, he acquired an orchard from friend Jack Jones in Quincy, which has 170 acres of apples and 75 acres of red pears. Pat Burnett expected to pick a record pear crop this season. Fryhover said even though Burnett is now working just as a grower, he's still very much in tune with what's happening in the pear deal and the market opportunities. "He can stand back and look at the whole industry, and not many people can do that anymore." Tony, one of Burnett's two sons, manages the orchards and oversees the personnel, while JoAnn does the accounting and payroll. Burnett does tractor work, such as mowing and spraying, just because he enjoys it. Housing Besides being a great place to raise pears, the orchard offers a 360° panorama of the Cascade Mountains, which makes it prime real estate. About four years ago, Burnett almost sold the Leavenworth property (with the exception of his house and five acres around it) for $5 million. Burnett asked for a nonrefundable deposit of $200,000 and gave the prospective buyers six months to complete the deal, which involved securing the water supply and being annexed into the City of Leavenworth. They ran out of time. A housing development would have dramatically changed the character of the environment, but that didn't worry him too much. There comes a time when you have to get over the sentimental attachment, he says. If it had been an apple orchard, it would be long gone. '"I didn't need to sell it," Burnett said, noting that the pears have been bringing in good revenue for the past few years. "If it wasn't making a lot of money, it would be a different situation." Ironically, what's kept the pear industry viable is a lack of research and innovation, he argues. Orchardists are growing the same varieties they always have, and though they are planting trees closer together, the lack of a dwarfing rootstock has limited tree density. It's kept the playing field level so small growers can remain competitive. In contrast, apple growers who failed to keep up with a rapid shift to new varieties and intensive, early-yielding orchard systems have fallen by the wayside. The apple industry has become dominated by large, vertically integrated companies that have the resources to keep planting and replanting and can withstand years of poor orchard returns because of their packing profits, Burnett observed. Should a new pear variety be developed that could be grown equally well in hot areas like the Columbia Basin, with its thousands of acres of land and plentiful irrigation water, as it could in the Wenatchee Valley, the traditional growers could not compete, he said. "What I hate to see happen is the small growers going out of business," Burnett said. • Good Fruit Grower SEPTEMBER 2013 23