US cranberries

Cranberry growers in the United States are battling steep surpluses and declining prices, along with increased competition from Canadian and overseas producers.

To offset the imbalances, the U.S. Cranberry Marketing Committee, based in Wareham, Mass., is pursuing an “aggressive decision to get very active to create more demand,” according to Scott Soares, the committee’s executive director.

He said the group’s international market development subcommittee is attempting to make inroads in China and Russia, and is conducting investigative work in Brazil and India.

Domestically, the committee is conversing with USDA to generate more federal purchases. USDA’s recent $5 million purchase, while taking 110,00 to 130,000 barrels off the market, falls short of the 500,000 barrels the industry had targeted for the buy.

The United States produced 402,300 tons of cranberries last year, an increase from 385,700 the year previous. Before an expansion that involved replanting and larger bogs to meet anticipated demand that largely did not materialize, the industry produced 327,700 tons in 2007.

Cranberry operations in Wisconsin, which produces the majority of the world’s cranberry crop, have expanded acreage and production in recent years based on demands from Ocean Spray and other processors, which anticipated strong growth in overseas sales of juice and sweetened, dried cranberries. But overseas increases amounted to just 2 percent to 3 percent, while demand in the U.S. market also was bottoming out due to the recession.

U.S. farmers were left with a huge excess of cranberries this fall, after an unanticipated rise in production in Canada. Farmers who don’t belong to the Ocean Spray cooperative have received $22 to $28 per 100 pounds for a fall crop that cost them $25 to $30 per 100 pounds to produce. Some analysts predict those prices could fall to $15 to $18 per 100 pounds if market conditions don’t improve for the 2013 crop.

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