Cranberry farmers seeing positive prices after setting aside crops in 2018
WARRENS, Wis. (WKBT) — “The Russel Rezin & Son Cranberry Marsh has been in the family for 101 years.
“It’s in our blood.”
Growers like Amber Bristow know everything one could know about the fruit.
One thing they don’t know, is the future of the fruit’s price.
“It’s a roller coaster.”
Recently, cranberry farms like Bristow’s were facing issues with over production. More Cranberries were being grown than were being sold.
“But thankfully cranberries, they’ll bounce back.”
That they did, with help from the USDA.
“The USDA created a plan called the set aside. So every grower through Ocean Spray would have to set aside a certain percentage of crop depending on what their yield is like.”
With fewer cranberries in the market for the last two years…
“The demand of cranberries is going up.”
But this overstock issue isn’t solved by a set aside.
“This is a short term solution and a short term tactic,” explained Tom Lochner, Executive Director of the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association.
Cranberry growers want a higher demand, and to reach that they may have to go global.
“If you go to Europe, South America, Asia, they don’t know what a cranberry is they don’t have a word for it,” added Lochner.
“We have a big market in Chile right now which is awesome, we’re trying to get into Asia a little more, just to introduce the fruit right now is the biggest issue we’re trying to tackle.
But before cranberries could become a global fruit, Bristow is taking it one year at a time.
“The 2019 season is looking promising for us.”
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