Cranberry Outlook Pt 2

Cranberry Outlook Pt 2

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. Cranberry harvest here in Washington is about to start, but the hot dry summer we've experienced may have a lot to say about the how and when.

Kim Patten with the WSU Extension office in Long Beach says flooding the bogs will be much more challenging this year ...

KIM PATTEN ... "It also depends on how wet the ground is. So, if you've got a lot of rainfall, it doesn't take that much water to flood the bed, everything is saturated. But, if it's been a dry summer, it's a first bed and we haven't had any rainfall, it takes a lot of time to flood because all that whole ground has to absorb that water before it will hold water. So, it could be several days of flooding until you get enough water. That's another reason they've got to hold off just because it more water to flood a bed now than it will a month from now."

Patten says the cranberries are looking pretty good, but that could be a problem ...

KIM PATTEN ... "Um, it's gonna beeeeeeee ... probably a record crop. Not necessarily in the state of Washington, but, you know, in the U.S. or at least in North America. And so, that's not going to help. But, you know, I think, farmers are inherently optimistic and it'll get better."

Patten says demand for cranberries over the past few years is not keeping up with supply which has resulted in a dramatic drop in prices.

Cranberry supplies have outpaced demand in recent years thanks, in large part, to a boom in acreage in Quebec.

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