Thursday, January 31, 2013

Northwest pears head to China for first time

A container ship departed from Seattle on Thursday with the first-ever shipments of Northwest fresh pears to China, ending a nearly 20-year effort to gain market access to the world's most populous nation.The Northwest exports about 7 million boxes of pears annually. The industry hopes to expand to as many as 300,000 boxes to China in the next few years.