Ocean Spray prepares for 2014 North American cranberry harvest
Regionally, Ocean Spray expects most growing regions (Massachusetts, New Jersey, Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, and Quebec) to remain fairly steady year over year, but anticipates the Wisconsin crop could be down by as much as 17 percent over the record 2013 crop of 5.8 million barrels.
“With harvest just underway in most of the growing regions, Ocean Spray is prepared to receive, process, and sell the 2014 crop,” said Dan Crocker, VP of Cooperative Development. “Our business remains strong and we are committed to our continued efforts to expand the demand for cranberry through new markets, channels, and products.”
Approximately 75 percent of the Cooperative’s cranberries will be consumed in North America with the remaining shipped overseas. The Cooperative continues to focus on international expansion and will host customers, media, and tastemakers from around the world during the spectacular cranberry harvest. Ocean Spray® cranberries are featured in more than 1,000 products in over 90 countries worldwide. This past spring, Ocean Spray received the President’s “E” Award for Exports. The “E” Awards are the highest recognition any U.S. entity may receive for making a significant contribution to the expansion of U.S. exports. The Cooperative’s top export markets are The United Kingdom, Australia, France, and Mexico. Its fastest growing markets are China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and Central America.
Just over 200,000 barrels of Ocean Spray’s 2014 harvest will be sold as fresh cranberries, available now through the end of the year, while the remaining fruit will become juice beverages, dried cranberries, cranberry sauce, and other cranberry products.
Ocean Spray Grower-Owners are located throughout all cranberry growing regions including Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin, as well as British Columbia and Eastern Canada. This June, Ocean Spray Grower-Owners also celebrated the springtime harvest in Chile, delivering over 400 thousand barrels to the cooperative.
The North American harvest begins in mid-September and will run through mid-November, finishing just in time for Thanksgiving in the United States. Of the 400 million pounds (4 million barrels) of cranberries Americans consume annually, 20 percent – or 80 million pounds – will be consumed Thanksgiving week. Ocean Spray sells more cranberries the Wednesday before Thanksgiving than any other day of the year.
For more information:
Kellyanne Dignan
Ocean Spray
Tel: +1 508-923-3205
Email: kdignan@oceanspray.com
www.oceanspray.com