The Washington-Oregon Canning Pear Association has announced a price agreement with three Pacific Northwest processors for 2006-crop processing pears.

The three cash-buying processors (Truitt Brothers, Inc., Del Monte Foods, and Northwest Packing Company) have agreed to a two-year contract providing an adjustable price for No. 1 grade pears based on $225 per ton for the 2006 crop and $230 a ton for the 2007 crop, according to Jay Grandy, manager of the Canning Pear Association. Those prices will be adjusted up or down by one dollar per ton for each 1,000 tons of Northwest pears processed in the Northwest above or below a base tonnage of 140,000 tons, with a maximum adjustment of $10 per ton.

Grandy said negotiations were difficult as both parties were determined to improve their financial positions. The price for No. 1 grade pears last season was $215 a ton, compared with $210 in 2004, $246 in 2003, and $243 in 2002.