Cranberry Stressline

Archives

July 2001

Rumors floating about sale of Nantucket Nectars, Editorial - Ocean Spray Cranberry growers must wake up, Editorial, Quaker and the Spray: A modest proposal, Op-Ed - Handler Marketing Pool , By John Swendrowski, Local Growers adjust to marketing order with resignation, By Karen Dusek,  from the Middleboro Gazette

Volume regulation proposed for Raisins of 53% and 43%

7/30/01 Follows is from a summary of the rule posted for comments today "This rule establishes final volume regulation percentages for 2000-01 crop Natural (sun-dried) Seedless raisins (Naturals) and Zante Currant raisins (Zantes) covered under the Federal marketing order for California raisins (order). The order regulates the handling of raisins produced from grapes grown in California and is locally administered by the Raisin Administrative Committee (Committee). The volume regulation percentages are 53 percent free and 47 percent reserve for Naturals, and 83 percent free and 17 percent reserve for Zantes. The percentages are intended to help stabilize raisin supplies and prices, and strengthen market conditions." Read entire order open for comments.

Editorial
Responses on Forum

Ocean Spray Cranberry growers must wake up

7/25/01 If you can't hold on at prices under $25 a barrel for at least three more years, depleting your resources to stay in the cranberry business is ill advised, and exhausting them is asking for bankruptcy.  We see no significant change in the supply and demand equation or the surplus, in 2001, 2002 or 2003. Only if Ocean Spray's white cranberry juice is wildly successful, and consumption of the traditional red drinks increases dramatically at the same time, do we see the supply-demand equation back in balance, unless there is a 50% volume reduction next year, until the year 2004.

If  white cranberry juice doesn't succeed, and we don't think it will, add a year or two for the price per barrel to reach $25. Can you hang on until 2006?

Ocean Spray is a company in trouble. It is worse than previously thought.  We learned today from a reliable industry source outside of Ocean Spray, and totally independent of the ExtraNet, that Ocean Spray will be paying their growers significantly less per barrel than previously announced.

Too many cranberry growers are sleep walking. It's as if they think this is all a bad dream. All the growers who supported the Ocean Spray position for the smaller volume regulation wanted to believe the company "wisdom." After all, there are bad dreams and good dreams.  CONTINUED

NEW  7/29/01 Boston Globe: Growers move from berries to golf 
Assoc. Press: Growers developing new uses for land

7/27/01 Standard Times: Federal bill would help growers
7/27/01 Burlington County Times: DeMarco land deal criticized by foes

7/24/01 Standard Times: More on the fish kill

7/23/01 Ledger: MA growers seek other uses for bogs 

From 7/20/01 Agriculture Law: in GAO report, Senator Harkin finds "an ever-widening gulf" in federal agricultural payments between small farms and large farms."

From the Produce News: An analysis of the cranberry marketing order.

7/19/01 Standard Times: Wareham fish kill probed

7/17/01 NY Times:  EPA rules on Ag. run-off on hold Ledger: Carver Grower battles EPA

Makepeace plans: 7/8/01 Makepeace has 3 towns' interests at heart, by ]ohn Otis Drew, vice president and project director for the A.D. Makepeace Co. in Wareham in the Standard-Times

7/8/01 Makepeace explains its decision, by John Doherty, in the Standard-Times

7/5/01 Juice Co. president resigns in Milwaukee Jour. Sentinel.

7/3/02 Mother nature may keep crop low, WI Rapids Daily Trib. | | 7/1/01 Makepeace development from The Globe |  Falling MA bog values equal higher taxes 

Rumors floating about sale of Nantucket Nectars

7/31/01 Perhaps fueled by Ocean Spray's financial plight, and an article in the July 27 issue of Beverage Digest titled "Ocean Spray Eyes Sale of Nantucket Nectars," rumors are circulating that negotiations are in process for the sale of Nantucket Nectars, possibly to Coca Cola or Cadbury Schweppes. As far as Stressline knows, these are merely rumors.

Editorial

Quaker and the Spray: A modest proposal

7/30/01 Stressline still hasn't given up on selling Ocean Spray. In reviewing possible suitors, we have taken a renewed interest in Quaker Oats. Now that it looks like its deal with Pepsi is probably going to be blocked by the F.T.C. (see release), we think a much smaller deal would make sense to Quaker.

Ocean Spray's financial troubles put its price in the bargain category, so growers will not benefit from a windfall. However, if Quaker does acquire Ocean Spray they will benefit from a far better fit than if it was acquired by Coke or Pepsi. Quaker not only has proved that it can market beverages with Gatorade, but it is a cereal institution. They would not only be able to own and market all the Ocean Spray juices, but could introduce new Craisin varieties in all their grain offerings. Ownership of the trademark "Cran" alone would be valuable to them added to any of their cereals.

While not a giant like Coke or Pepsi, with approximately $5 billion in net sales, Quaker Oats has the  capital to finance Ocean Spray's comeback.

White cranberry juice not a radically new product

7/26/01 Stressline has learned from reliable sources that Ocean Spray formulated a white cranberry juice from green cranberries several years ago. The product was sampled in-house and judged not to be commercially viable.

Op-Ed

Handler Marketing Pool

By John Swendrowski

7/24/01 -- The CMC is in the process of attempting to create another new tool under the Marketing Order that I believe will prove detrimental to all growers. A sub committee of the CMC is attempting to write guidelines to establish a "Handler Marketing Pool" under the control of the CMC and USDA.

I do not believe that the creation of a "Handler Marketing Pool" is in the best interest of the cranberry grower. The best market for the grower is a free market that requires handlers to source their needs directly from the grower, not from other handlers. The concept of a "Handler Marketing Pool" is in direct conflict with the intended purpose of the Marketing Order. Despite recent developments, I continue to believe that the intent of the Marketing Order is to control total supply in order to influence per unit price. It is a system that will work if it is properly utilized. CONTINUED

Additional Comments on the Handler Marketing Pool Tool by Doanne Andresen

 

POINT

''This regulation was forced upon us by Ocean Spray, which purposely created a surplus and then used their political power to influence the USDA to impose these restrictions upon our industry. Ocean Spray's propaganda machine is mesmerizing the press, which continues to write syrupy stories about the cranberry situation.'' John Decas

COUNTERPOINT

"Everybody has had a role in the surplus problem. All of us simply grew too many cranberries in the 1990s... Taken as a whole, ''Mr. Decas's comments are a smokescreen, aimed at making the marketing order unworkable'' Chris Phillips, Ocean Spray

7/8/01 The Boston Globe: Cranberry handler chafing at limits

 

Local Growers adjust to marketing order with resignation

By Karen Dusek,  from the Middleboro Gazette

7/5/01 - "It's done. Now we'll find ways to deal with it ...You have to play the hand you're dealt," said local cranberry grower Betty Brown in response to an edict from the U.S. Department of Agriculture limiting cranberry production to 4.6 million barrels for the upcoming season. That number, which reflects a 35 percent reduction in production, is the amount handlers will be allowed to purchase from growers beginning Sept. 1. CONTINUED


Sun. Globe: Betty's Neck | Attendance down 30% at Cranberry World

Federal Register, Click here:
 2001 Cranberry Marketing Order

Robert Hawk Resigns as Northland President; Ricke Kress Appointed Successor
Company Reports Third Quarter Financial Results

7/5/01 -- Press Release -- Northland Cranberries, Inc., manufacturer and marketer of Northland brand 100% juice cranberry blends and Seneca brand fruit juice products, today reported fiscal 2001 third quarter financial results for the three-month period ended May 31, 2001. The company announced a loss for the period of $2.4 million, or $0.12 per share, on revenues of $30.3 million. For the comparable period last year, the company reported a net loss of $4.4 million, or $0.22 per share, on revenues of $61.4 million.  CONTINUED


 

Previous edition

USDA announces volume regulation: 4.6 Million

On the 2001 Cranberry Marketing Order By John Swendrowski

Press Release from John Decas, President and CEO of Decas Cranberries

USDA Comments

and more...