The reason to call a Santa Maria pear supplier is the calendar: this is one of the first pears of the season, picked at the end of July. Hatipoğlu Tarım, a fresh produce exporter working from Antalya since 2002, ships Santa Maria from July to September. What follows is a buyer’s view of the variety: when it is picked, how its thin skin is protected, which packs are available and what we need in order to quote.
An early pear with a thin skin
Santa Maria is a juicy pear with a sweet aroma and a thin skin. It is an early variety, and that earliness is its commercial advantage: it opens the pear season. For a buyer, early pears from Turkey answer a simple need: new-crop fruit at the very start of the pear season.
The thin skin is the other side of the coin. It marks easily, and everything in the handling of this variety is arranged around that fact.
Santa Maria pear harvesting time and supply window
Santa Maria pear harvesting time falls at the end of July. Our supply calendar for the variety covers July, August and September, which makes it a short, planned programme rather than a line that runs through the winter. Volumes and delivery weeks are therefore best discussed before the harvest begins.
September, the last month of this calendar, is the month in which the Deveci winter pear is harvested, so a pear programme can pass from one variety to the other. The first apples are picked in the same month; see the guide to Golden Delicious. The overall picture is in the season calendar.
Selection criteria
Fruit is selected for export by size, colour, firmness and surface integrity.
- Size: uniform fruit in each tray, in the range agreed with the buyer.
- Colour: even colour across the lot.
- Firmness: firm fruit at packing.
- Surface: a clean, unmarked skin, especially important for this thin-skinned variety.
From the tree straight into single-layer trays
To protect the delicate skin, the pears are placed directly into single-layer trays in the orchard. On the same day the fruit goes through pre-cooling.
What decides Santa Maria pear shelf life
Santa Maria pear shelf life depends on three factors, and all three are dealt with on the day of harvest. The first is the skin: a thin skin that has been rubbed or pressed loses its appearance quickly. The second is the pack, since a single-layer tray keeps each pear free of the weight of other fruit. The third is temperature, which is why the fruit is pre-cooled on the day of harvest and should stay in an unbroken cold chain afterwards.
UC Davis publishes general data for winter pears rather than a sheet for this variety. Those data give a temperature range of −1 to 0 °C at 90–95% relative humidity; for an early summer pear they are a guide to temperature and humidity only. For the transport side, read our article on the cold chain in fresh produce export.
Packs, pallets and tariff heading
Santa Maria is offered in carton, wooden or plastic packs and is packed to the shipment plan. The listed dimensions are 30 × 50 × 12.5 cm for the carton, the wooden crate and the plastic crate, plus a 60 × 40 × 15 cm carton. A comparison of footprints is given in packaging and case sizes in export.
Loads are built on euro pallets measuring 80 × 120 cm. Thirty-three of them make up a full 13.60 m refrigerated truck, the unit in which we plan shipments. Because pears are carried close to 0 °C, they do not fit on a truck with greenhouse vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, aubergines or cucumbers, which travel at around 10 °C.
Pears are classified under HS 0808.30. The complete tariff line should be checked with your customs broker before the first shipment.
Certificates and residue analysis for European lots
Hatipoğlu Tarım’s certificates are ISO 9001, ISO 22000, ISO 10002, GLOBALG.A.P. IFA and GRASP. Where a lot is bound for Europe, residue analysis is part of its preparation without exception. What buyers usually request on paper is covered in which certificates European buyers require.
Import process in six steps
The six steps are harvest at the end of July, pre-cooling on the same day, grading, packing, cold storage and dispatch by refrigerated truck. With Santa Maria, packing begins in the orchard, where each pear is laid in its single-layer tray. Every step is run in house.
Santa Maria pear wholesale: requesting a quotation
A Santa Maria pear wholesale quotation needs six details from you: variety, size, packaging, weekly volume, delivery week and destination country. Reach us by phone (+90 242 339 55 25), by WhatsApp (+90 534 260 07 25) or by email (info@hatipoglutarim.com).
Hatipoğlu Tarım has exported fresh fruit and vegetables from Antalya since 2002. Under the FİNİKE brand it ships 128 product lines to 42 countries, with harvest, grading, cold storage and dispatch handled in house across five facilities in Serik, Kepez, Mavikent, Yenişehir and Alaşehir.
Because the window is short, contact us early with your weekly volume and delivery weeks for Santa Maria, and we will prepare a quotation.
