Cranberry Stressline

August, 2002

On the Forum

Twelve days to vote

by Linda Rinta

8/30/02 Hardly anyone provided testimony on the CMC amendments and I can understand that. The Marketing Committee and the details of the order have become so convoluted and beyond our reach that the effort seems wasted and the process frustrating. One of the amendments required Ocean Spray representatives to the Marketing Committee to be elected by growers as the independent representatives are, by a vote of growers.

The Marketing Committee is after all a unit of government and it would seem unthinkable that any unit of United States government, would have representatives that were NOT elected.

I am truly appalled, and I hope that you are also, that two Ocean Spray growers from the West Coast attended the Oregon hearing and actually testified that they preferred NOT to elect their representatives. If they are that certain about abdicating their choice, then why would they go to the trouble of providing testimony at all? It is like voting, not to have the right to vote. I don’t get it. But simply because they voiced their desire, and others didn’t, the Ocean Spray growers’ testimony stands in support of NON ELECTED REPRESENTATION. Message and thread continued

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Press Release

Cranberry Growers Elect Two Marketing Board Members

8/21/02 WI. Dept. of Agriculture: MADISON -- State cranberry growers re-elected Michael O’Brien of Manitowish Waters and June Potter of Warrens to three year terms on the Wisconsin Cranberry Board, Inc. the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection announced today.

Nearly 41 percent of Wisconsin’s 239 cranberry producers participated in the election. It is June Potter’s fifth term on the board and Michael O’Brien’s second. The board initially appointed O’Brien to fill a vacancy created when Jonathon Smith resigned.

The Wisconsin Cranberry Board manages the state cranberry marketing order. Grower assessments are used to conduct health related research in cooperation with The Cranberry Institute in Wareham, MA.

Middleboro on way to form Ag. Commission

Standing room only meeting puts initiative on fast track 

8/20/02 Chances appear to be good for Middleboro to become the third municipality in Massachusetts to have an Agriculture Commission. Last night's standing room only meeting at the Middleboro Town Hall ended with both Town Manager, John Healey, and Town Planner, Ruth Geoffroy expressing optimism that the commission could be approved as soon as the September Town Meeting. The chairman of the Board of Selectman offered to sponsor the item. CONTINUED

Ocean Spray Squeezable "Product of Canada"

8/17/02 Ocean Spray continues to bring out new products, despite some question among industry experts as to where the money will come from to market them. Stressline has obtained a sample of the Ocean Spray Squeezable Cranberry Sauce. We have yet to see this in markets in S.E. Massachusetts and do not know whether it is being sold elsewhere.

 Stressline's samplers felt this product was tasty, but had a more grainy texture than the canned jellied sauce. It was sweet with a distinct cranberry flavor, similar to its canned cousin. Neither held up in flavor or texture to homemade jellied sauce.

According to the label, the product is not made in the United States, but rather is a "Product of Canada."

From Beverage World on Nantucket Nectars

"We bought Nantucket Nectars," laughs Belsito, "walked in and said 'let's go. How come you haven't done anything in the last 18 minutes?"' It's funny because it's true. Nantucket, like Yoo-Hoo and Orangina before it, employed people with ideas of their own, but their respective ownerships (Ocean Spray and Pernod Ricard) had the brands on the block for a long time, thus, according to Sands, inadvertently stifling the initiative pipeline. With Snapple (and Cadbury) providing a home for these labels, ideas burst into reality Within fewer than 90 days of the Nantucket purchase, there were three new flavors on the market, including a very unique blueberry arrival dubbed Maine Berry Punch. Read more excerpts from Beverage World article

Editorial

Bill-and-hold

What follows is my understanding, based on some preliminary research, of the practice of bill-and-hold, which is being debated on the Cranberry Stressline Forum (see "August Load").

Bill-and-hold is a common way that customers order products from manufacturers. It is generally not illegal or unethical. In fact, you may have done this yourself. A good example for a cranberry farmer is when you order chemicals in advance of when you need them and ask the retailer to hold them until a given date. Large companies may order in advance and ask the manufacturer to withhold delivery because they don't have the warehouse space available and sales aren't anticipated for a certain period of time.

However, bill-and-hold may also be used to inflate earnings reporting... (CONTINUED)

U.S. cranberry production forecast  up 7% says NASS

Related Newspaper Article
8/21/02 Cranberry crop estimates
greeted with skepticism
Standard Times

8/20/02 The USDA New England Agricultural Statistic Services released their annual crop prediction following the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers' Association business meeting, which was part of the 115th annual meeting and trade show held at the Cranberry Experimental Station in Wareham, Mass.

The United States forecast is 5.72 billion barrel, up 7% from 2001 and less than 1% above 2000. NASS 2002 Cranberry Report TEXT, PDF

The annual CCCGA event featured a ribbon cutting for the recently renovated University of Massachusetts Experiment Station laboratory as well as tours of the laboratory. See photo gallery of laboratory.

Quote

8/17/02 From an article in the Wall Street Journal (8/14/02) titled Shoppers Flock to Discounters, But Bigger Isn't Always Cheaper about how buying the larger sizes sometimes costs more than buying the same total amount in two or more smaller sizes:  

Echoing remarks of other consumer-goods makers is the statement of Chris Phillips, a spokesman for Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc., "Definitely when our products go out, the higher the volume, the lower the unit cost."

So what does Safeway Inc. have to say about the pricing inequity over fruit juice at one of its Dominick's grocery stores in Chicago? There, a gallon jug of Ocean Spray Cranberry juice -- so big it has a special handle on it -- ran $7.99. But if you grabbed two of the half-gallon bottles, each priced at $3.79, you'd get the same amount of juice and save 41 cents.

Letter in local paper critical of growers

8/15/02 The Middleboro Gazette published a letter from an S. Ware, who wrote that she was a former bog owner. Ware expressed concern over a 33 acre parcel of land which is being consider as the site of a housing development. She wrote: "The chemicals not only affect the cranberry bogs but the area surrounding it. How is this person going to build on this property? Fill the bogs in? If that is the case, where is he/she going to dispose of miles of contaminated irrigation equipment? Where did the owner of the bogs dispose of his chemical containers?"

Letter to Massachusetts' Independent Cranberry Growers

John Decas

Member, Cranberry Marketing Committee 

8/15/02 Editor's Note: John Decas, President of Decas Cranberries, was recently elected to represent Massachusetts independents on the Cranberry Marketing Committee. He has mailed this letter to every Massachusetts independent grower he could identify, and hopes to reach all of them by publishing the letter on Cranberry Stressline.

 LETTER

 Decas Cranberry makes Carlson Chief Operating Officer and hires medical doctor as Science and Health Director

Press Release: Title -  "Decas Cranberry Products positions itself for the future with key personnel moves"  

8/6/02 Wareham, Massachusetts - In two personnel advances, Decas Cranberry Products, Inc., based in Wareham, Massachusetts, makes further progress in its planned evolution from a commodity-oriented cranberry supplier to an international ingredient company including non-commodity, technologically-advanced products. CONTINUED

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