Tottori Prefectural Government opened a special market of pears in Tokyo on October 28, which were shaken off from trees by a powerful earthquake striking the central part of the Tottori prefecture on October 21.
Shaken-off pears are being sold at a special counter in a pilot store of the Tottori Prefectural Government to support revitalization of earthquake-stricken farmers in the prefecture. (Minato ward, Tokyo)
Although most of the pears are partly damaged in their skins, they have been well matured. Many consumers of the Metropolitan areas gathered in the market to purchase them for a purpose of supporting pear producers hardly hit by the earthquake.
Marketing of pears is organized at a special counter in a pilot store of the Prefectural Government called “Tottori-Oakayama Shinbashi-Kan” located in Minato ward, Tokyo, which is jointly operated with a neighboring prefecture of Okayama.
One hundred tons of pears named “Oh-shu” (literally, a king of autumn), a late-maturing variety, were shipped to the pilot store from Yurihama town in Tottori prefecture, where a number of “Oh-shu” pears were shaken off from the trees just before the picking season at many orchards by the magnitude -6.6 earthquake in the afternoon of October 21.
Farmers have found it difficult for them to distribute quake-fallen pears in the commercial market, because these pears are smaller or partly damaged in the skin.
At the Tottori prefectural pilot store, quake-damaged pears are priced at a range of 100-300 yen per piece to support revitalization of disaster-stricken farmers, while non-damaged large ones are also sold at 450 yen per piece (some 700 grams).
“Our pear producers were bitterly disappointed to have their orchards battered by the earthquake in a harvesting season. But I believe they have been greatly encouraged by many people in Tokyo,” Iwao Fukuyama, president of Tottori-Chuo Agricultural Cooperative, said at the pilot store.