As British Columbia begins to harvest its fall cranberries, producers may be met with increased demand from some foreign markets.
“B.C. cranberries will see higher demand due to higher tariffs on U.S cranberries,” says Dale Duley of Coast Cranberries Ltd. in Langley, B.C. “The U.S. has a 25 percent tariff in shipping to China so we think that will be in our favor and hopefully help B.C. cranberries.” Duley says Coast Cranberries is already receiving calls from a number of countries including China, Russia and some European countries. “We’re hopeful there will be more demand this year,” he adds.
Duley estimates that this year’s supplies of cranberries will be good. “It’s similar to last year in terms of production,” he says. “It’s weather dependent. This year we had really good weather, so the weather played a bit part.” Harvest begins in October and should last for almost 1.5 months.
More product development?
As Coast eyes other markets, Duley also notes that there is continued development in the use of cranberries in products. “Big companies such as Ocean Spray are working a lot in product development—they are doing research around cranberry juice and have come out on the market with so many juices such cran-mango, etc.,” he says. “In China, they’re using them in products such as small yogurt drinks.”
With potentially increased demand, Duley also believes pricing will continue to grow as they did last year. “Pricing was really low before, but last year the market started to pick up,” he says. “We saw growth so we are thinking that this year, prices will be like last year or grow more.”
For more information:
Dale Duley
Coast Cranberries Ltd.
Tel: +1 (604) 888-1015
[email protected]
https://www.coastcranberries.com/
