Cranberry Volume Soars Pt 1
With Today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. It appears cherries aren't the only crop in over-supply. It's so bad, in fact, that the U.S. Cranberry industry will be asking the USDA to require growers and processors to pull production back for the next couple of years.
Kim Patten, with the WSU Extension office in Long Beach, it's a decision with impact here in Washington ...
KIM PATTEN ... "We are only 1% of the U.S. production, so we're a drop in the bucket in terms of supply, but it effects the price that we all get. So, the supply right now is 20-million barrels and the sale is only 10-million barrels per year so we're basically double what we can sell."
Patten says the cranberry supply is backing up ...
KIM PATTEN ... "We have enough, like 115% already for next year in storage, in freezers and we're ready for another bumper crop. So, it's scary out there and the prices are dropping and there's no real end as far as a good demand for the crop that will meet what we can supply."
Patten says demand just hasn't kept up with supply ...
KIM PATTEN ... "It's gone up some, but it hasn't gone up as fast as the new plantings and the production. So, in 2000, I think, the average production was 150 barrels per acre and now it's 230 barrels an acre. So, we've become a lot more efficient and better in production, a lot of new varieties and production methods, and then just a lot of new acres."
Patten says much of the new growth has been seen in Canada, but it's something growers across North America will have to compensate for.
More on that tomorrow.
