The supply of cranberries for the fresh market is good this season. The Cranberry Network is sourcing its fresh cranberries from Quebec and Wisconsin and the former is having a good to normal crop following last year's challenging one. "The fruit is looking good this season," says Claus Von Bauer of The Cranberry Network, adding that Quebec's harvest started on time this season.
Last year in Quebec, harvest challenges included a wet spring which caused issues with rotting and poor fruit quality. Much of this was also discovered later in the season, towards the end of August, which surprised many growers and shippers. "There was some fruit there but the yield of fruit that was usable was really low. They had to sort out half the fruit and it ended up being 50 percent of a normal crop," he says.
As for Wisconsin, it too has a good crop this season and it began harvest about a week early. "Though they were struggling a bit at the beginning of the season with color because of the warm temperatures. September was warm and we needed the cool nights to get the color and we didn't have enough of them, though that's behind us now," says Von Bauer, adding that for the past week or so, it's been below freezing at night. "So from here on out, it's looking very good."
The Cranberry Network is also doing organic production out of both regions and in Quebec, quality and volume are good. Wisconsin has a particularly strong organic crop that's greater in size over last year by about 20 percent.
Massachusetts is also seeing a normal crop this year.
Good cranberry demand
As for demand, it's strong and stable on both conventional and organic cranberries. "There's not a lot of growth in fresh but we're seeing our piece of the pie slowly growing. It's not necessarily an increase in consumption. It might be shifting from one label to another," he says.
Conventional cranberry pricing, which is set for the season, is similar to last year–a year that saw a price increase. "We have an increase in orders and we'll be jam-packed before U.S. Thanksgiving. We're also starting to see orders for Christmas. It's always really strong leading up to U.S. Thanksgiving and we're not sure until the end of November how much we're going to pack for Christmas. However, the early indications are looking good," says Von Bauer.
Pricing in organic cranberries is up slightly over last year.
For more information:
Claus Von Bauer
The Cranberry Network
Tel: +1 (514) 426-8880 x 101
[email protected]
http://www.thecranberrynetwork.com/