Category Archives: International

I Want a Pear!

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More details to come, but here’s a preview of another exciting promotion we have coming up in Mexico! The Wannabes Starring Savvy is a TV show that airs in Latin America about six students at an arts academy boarding school with dreams of becoming pop stars, even though their school only teaches the classics.  Luckily they find a local café where they can rock out, with a different disguise every week to hide from their strict principal. USA Pears are such a sweet and juicy snack, it’s no wonder they ins-PEAR-ed this song! Facebook Twitter Google+ Pinterest LinkedIn

¡Participar en la Aventura!

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Following last Spring’s successful Marmaduke promotion, USA Pears is proud to partner again with Fox Pictures in Mexico for the premiere of their Gulliver’s Travels movie, starring Jack Black – an adventure of huge flavor!  In addition to billboards across the cities, kids can visit grocery stores in Mexico City, Monterrey, and Guadalajara to sample delicious USA Pear varieties and have their picture taken with character cutouts and receive a special frame as a gift. Gulliver’s Travels opens here in the U.S. on December 25 as a new twist on the classic story.  While on assignment to complete an article about the Bermuda Triangle, Gulliver is transported to Lilliput, where he is significantly larger than the island’s tiny citizens. Gulliver’s Travels Teaser Facebook Twitter Google+ Pinterest LinkedIn

U.S. Fresh Fruit Carnival

Lynsey By on

Following the “Spirits of Healthy Living” promotion in Indonesia, this season USA Pears are proud participants of the U.S. Fresh Fruit Carnival in Taiwan!  The promotion teaches Taiwanese shoppers about high quality, delicious, and nutritious fruits from the U.S. To kick-off the promotions that will take place in the cities of Taipei, Taichung, and Central Taiwan, a press conference was held with officers of the USDA’s Foreign Agriculture Service office in Taiwan.  The celebration included giveaways, kids’ activities, and sampling of many different varieties of U.S. fruits, which, in many cases, are considered exotic in this part of the world. The promotion will last through the end of December (which is National Pear Month here in the U.S., if you hadn’t already heard!), allowing shoppers to participate in nutrition workshops, a lucky draw contest through the official U.S. Fresh Fruit Continue reading →

Sports Candy!

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Lazy Town is a children’s TV program starring Sportacus – a super hero whose mission is to revive the citizens of Lazy Town by encouraging them to be active and eat healthy fruits and vegetables known as “Sports Candy” (or “Dulces Sanos,” in Spanish). Throughout the month of November, Mexican kids can visit their local grocery stores to participate in a nutrition game at home, keeping track of their servings of fruits and vegetables with a Lazy Town sticker book.  Kids that eat five servings of Sports Candy for three days in a row get to go online with their parents and download a free episode of Lazy Town.  At certain stores, kids will even get the chance to meet Sportacus and other residents of Lazy Town in person! Pears are a nutritious addition to healthy diet – and fruits and vegetables as Continue reading →

Bosco Sails the South China Sea

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On my last day in Hong Kong, I grabbed Bosco and took a ride on the Star Ferry across the incredible Victoria Harbour.  The 10-minute ride cost me only 2.50 Hong Kong Dollars, which is about $0.32 in the U.S. (Bosco rode free), and provided spectacular views of the impressive city skyline. In Hong Kong, the wet market is a popular place to buy fresh foods, fruits, and vegetables, which of course includes pears!  The name comes from the fact that the floors are typically sprayed down with water to keep things clean.  There are many stalls, each offering an assortment of products.  Customers are looking for freshness, quality, and more variety than what is usually found in a grocery store.  The indoor market that I visited also provided air conditioning – a nice break from the humidity! Facebook Twitter Continue reading →

Celebrating the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival

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Greetings from Hong Kong! I’m wrapping up a two week tour of visiting the markets in Southeast Asia. It will be a few more weeks until the ships arrive with the first USA Pears of the season, but I have learned a lot on this trip to help prepare for the new crop! In Singapore and Hong Kong especially, the Chinese population is getting ready for the Mid-Autumn Festival. To celebrate, streets are decorated with lanterns, and typical foods include mooncakes – which are made from lotus seed paste – and pomelos. Look familiar? They look like giant Green Anjou pears! Pomelos, however, have a thick rind and the fruit itself is made up of wedges, like an orange or other citrus fruit. There is such a wide variety of tropical fruits available in these markets, so it was fun Continue reading →

The New Season is Here!

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While everyone here at our office and our reps around the world are busy, busy planning for the new USA Pears season, harvest has finally begun!  Bartletts and Starkrimsons will kick things off – look for them to start popping up in your local grocery stores soon! I’m getting ready for a tour of the growing regions a bit later in the fall with groups from India and Russia.  The most popular variety around the world is the Green Anjou.  Many countries aren’t familiar with the lesser-known (but equally delicious in their own way) varieties.  It’s a lot of fun to take visitors to the orchards so they can see all the different shapes, sizes, colors, and flavors of USA Pears! If you haven’t already sampled all of the varieties of USA Pears, add it to your list of things to Continue reading →

Pears in Space!

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Every so often I come across something really awesome and fun in the USA Pear archives.  This time, it was “Peras USA en el Espacio” – “USA Pears in Space!”  The idea is a little kooky, but I immediately fell in love with this book that was a giveaway for kids in Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela back in 2000.  Inside I found paper doll-style pears and everything needed to build my own spaceship.  It was a great way to get kids in South America familiar with the different varieties of USA Pears.  I couldn’t resist – I got out my scissors and glue stick, and put together the spaceship full of little astronaut pears. Now, this activity didn’t really require a lot of creativity on my part, but there was some craftiness involved.  A couple of weeks ago Brittany shared lovely homemade pear Continue reading →

We Appreciate the USDA!

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I just returned from a conference in Washington, DC, and had the opportunity to meet with our partners from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  Did you know that the USDA has over 107,000 employees?  That’s quite a group working on farming research, nutrition information, and promoting the United States’ vast bounty of crops, which of course include USA Pears. The USDA also has 100 offices located in 77 countries, which help make it possible for people around the world to shop for and enjoy fresh, sweet USA Pears.  This globe made from seed packets is located outside the USDA headquarters in DC, is a great representation of how the USDA works to connect the world through agriculture! Facebook Twitter Google+ Pinterest LinkedIn

A Simple Summer Salad from NZ

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Back in October, USA Pears were featured in a summer salad promotion in New Zealand. Lucky for us here in the Northern Hemisphere, summer has just arrived, and a fresh USA Pear salad is refreshing addition to the season’s menu! Here are our Kiwi friends enjoying the simple summer salad recipe below: Make a balsamic dressing by whisking 5 Tbsp olive oil with 1 Tbsp aged balsamic and season with salt and pepper to taste. Toast ½ cup almonds in oven until lightly browned, then cool and chop. Put a handful of salad leaves into a bowl, add ¼ cup crumbled blue cheese, toss with enough dressing to coat the leaves. Slice (don’t peel) one Anjou pear and add to the salad. Sprinkle the chopped nuts over the top. Serve and enjoy! Check out more recipes for salads and our Seasonal Continue reading →