The supply of fresh cranberries looks to be up this season. "It sounds like everyone in the cranberry industry had a great harvest and I heard Wisconsin's crop is 30 percent over expectations," says Kevin Tritz of Twin Lake Cranberry. "It sounds like Canada was also up and very few regions did not hit their expectations."
That's a different outlook than last year at this time when the supply was shorter. "Last year, as a fresh grower, you started to feel that pressure as the phone started to ring and buyers were looking for a little more product. It is inevitable though. You need to have up years and you need to have down years to create an average," says Tritz.
Twin Lake Cranberry founder Dan Tritz, Kevin Tritz's father, showing his grandkids the ropes in the cranberry business.
This year in Wisconsin, the season began on schedule–early 2024 predictions were that picking would begin on September 18th and that is exactly what happened. "In some areas, color was a little slower coming on but it seemed to stay just ahead of the picking team as they jockeyed around for the right color," Tritz says.
Thanksgiving pull
As for demand, it is stable. With Thanksgiving just ahead, most stores have pulled the bulk of their inventory and are now focused on pushing that inventory onto store shelves. Twin Lake Cranberry anticipates packing for slow pulls through the middle of December, though the days of packing 24 hours/day are behind them at this point in the season.
That may be a relief in one sense given labor continues to be a challenge for the fresh cranberry industry overall. Picking is an intense process that takes place during a long season often marked by cold, rainy weather. "The jobs are tedious, and finding people who can believe in the cause is a challenge, though we have been blessed with an incredible crew that was pulled together a few years ago, and we can't thank them enough for making everything possible," says Tritz.
Cranberry harvest is tedious work, but maybe not as much when it's a family affair.
Meanwhile, if demand is steady, how is the overall consumption of fresh cranberries developing? "The market is competitive but growing," he says. "A surprising number of people in America don't know what a fresh cranberry really is, what it tastes like, or what the health benefits are. I believe as that information starts to spread, so will consumption."
All of this has left pricing stable this year with little movement over last year's pricing. "For the first time, the market started to feel "pre-COVID," says Tritz. "Supply was stable, stock was good, and everyone was excited to help get these little red berries spread across America."
For more information:
Kevin Tritz
Twin Lake Cranberry
Tel: +1 (715) 323-5159
[email protected]
https://www.twinlakecranberry.com/