Cranberry Prices Fall
A saturated cranberry market is dragging prices down at a time when many growers have recently made big investments in their bogs.
This poses an especially challenging hurdle for growers who don’t belong to large cooperatives who sell to large manufacturers like Ocean Spray. They’re getting $22 to $28 per 100 pounds for their fall crop, said Tom Lochner, Executive Director of the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association. It costs them $25 to $30 per 100 pounds to grow, according to the Jackson County Chronicle.
Producers in Monroe and Jackson counties account for more than a third of the state’s cranberry production, which leads the nation.
Growers who belong to a cooperative that belongs to Ocean Spray are projected to get $61 a barrel - more than three times as much as his independent grower peers.
An influx of Canadian berries into the market has triggered the latest price drop. A relatively new player, the country’s harvest was much greater than was expected, Lochner said. Canada barely had any production 15 years ago; their bogs now are the second largest regional producers in the world.
