Cranberry growers ask for production cuts to ease glut of berries

Facing a continued glut of cranberries and depressed prices, the cranberry industry has asked federal officials to take unusual steps aimed at reducing production. 

The industry’s U.S. Cranberry Marketing Committee wants the U.S. Department of Agriculture to cap the amount of cranberries grown in 2018 at 75% of the normal crop.

The committee also has asked the USDA to have cranberry companies withhold 15% of this year’s crop from the marketplace.

Measures like this have been used only a handful of times in the last 50 years. The last time was in about 2001, according to industry sources.

The industry’s recommendations to the Agriculture Department come as Wisconsin is expected to lead the nation in cranberry production this fall, but the bountiful harvest will put further pressure on growers that are already struggling financially.

The industry has a total value of nearly $1 billion a year in Wisconsin.

The fall crop here is estimated to be 5.6 million barrels, according to new figures from the USDA.

And it comes on the heels of a strong harvest in 2016 that produced approximately 6 million barrels.

This fall’s Wisconsin cranberry crop could account for more than half of the cranberries harvested nationwide, adding to a surplus the industry has faced for the past several years.

“The oversupply is a challenge for our growers. With the commodity price for cranberries well below the cost of production, many growers in Wisconsin are experiencing low returns and financial difficulties,” Tom Lochner, executive director of the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association, said Friday.

Several factors have caused the market imbalance, including strong growing conditions, new cranberry acreage, technological advances and a flat demand for certain products such as cranberry juice.

The marketing committee's recommendations are intended to help stabilize conditions and improve grower's profits, according to Lochner.

“This short-term solution will help slow the excess supply being built while the industry continues to focus its efforts on the long-term solution of increasing demand both domestically and in international markets,” he said.

It’s unknown when the Agriculture Department will rule on the recommendations, which come under the cranberry industry’s federal marketing order system.

Wisconsin's cranberry harvest will begin in late September and continue through much of October. Around 5% of the crop will be sold as fresh fruit, and the remaining cranberries will be frozen and stored for longer-term sales as frozen berries, dried cranberries, juices, sauces and other products.

"With record crops in recent years, the cranberry industry’s oversupply continues to grow, and the scope of the oversupply is now at a point that the industry needed to take action and use its marketing order for what it was intended: to bring supply and demand back into balance," Kellyanne Dignan, a spokeswoman for Massachusetts-based Ocean Spray, said in an email.