Cranberry Stressline

Archives

Aug. 11 - 28, 2000


In the news:

8/28/00 The Associated Press published another cranberry story which appeared in the New York Times today. Article. | Also on CNN


Editorial Pictoon

Click to enlarge Cranberry Stressline Editorial pictoon
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I don't get it, who is this guy Rich?


In the News

''I've heard people say it's worse than '59 because at least then the Federal government indemnified growers for some of their losses,''  David Farrimond, USDA Cranberry Marketing Committee

8/20/00 The Boston Globe featured a story by David Bushnell, who often writes about the cranberry industry, on the front page of their South Weekly section. (Ed. note: Correction - Hal Brown does not co-own the family cranberry business. His wife Betty owns it with her cousins.)

Also... Northland and Ocean Spray are the subjects of an 8/20/00 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article "Milk, Juice seek grip on new market" about cranberry juice competing with single serve soft-drinks.

From the 8/19/00 Wisconsin Daily Tribune "Cranberry crop forecast down in state, U.S."


Northland "buy" recommendation from U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffrey is revised

8/18/00 Piper Jaffray, where beverage industry analyst George Dahlman tracks Northland Cranberries, revised its buy recommendation issued in June down from $10 to $5.00; [ EPS estimate of ($0.38) and ’01 estimate of $0.31].  They noted that the "industry sags under inventory glut and forecast of second largest crop on record, competitive pricing pressures not expected to abate near-term." Source: Net Cognizance

 

Cranberry Queen is DeMarco's first novel

8/18/00 Kathleen DeMarco, of the New Jersey DeMarco cranberry family, has published her first novel. According to Miramax Books editor in chief Jonathan Burnham, as quoted in Entertainment Weekly, the book is "about grief and recovery, which she writes about with amazing humor and insight."

Publishers weekly writes:

A first novel, Cranberry Queen by Kathleen DeMarco, a partner in a New York-based movie production company, was preempted by editorial director Jonathan Burnham at Talk Miramax Books when he was given an exclusive 24-hour look at the manuscript. The book is the story of a young professional woman in New York whose life is turned upside down when her parents are killed and she is abandoned by her boyfriend. Trying to deal with her grief, she takes refuge on a cranberry farm in New Jersey (where DeMarco grew up). According to Burnham, "The ease with which [DeMarco] writes both tragedy and comedy is completely captivating." He plans to publish next spring. Agent Laura Dail made the sale, having successfully guessed the book was just right for Burnham. Miramax also took a movie option, with DeMarco, who partners with John Leguizamo in Lower East Side Films, tapped as executive producer.


2000 Cranberry Production Down 8 Percent

8/15/00 The forecast for the 2000 cranberry crop is 5.84 million barrels, down 8 percent from 1999 but 7 percent above 1998. Oregon and Washington are forecasting increases from a year ago while Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Wisconsin are expecting a decrease. Read NASS report.


8/16/00 Growers meet with USDA official at Cranberry Institute Annual Metting, from the Cape Cod Times.8/14/00: Press release: Ocean Spray names former Gatorade executive VP of single-serve and foodservice sales

8/14/00: For the second time, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Avrum Lank has provided readers with his view of the cranberry crisis. He laments the wasting of tax payer dollars to help, suggests that Massachusetts growers turn their bogs into house lots, and offers no sympathy for growers in danger of going under. Lank wrote another article just as critical in March when the marketing order was first rejected. He said that it was the best thing that could happen to growers in Wisconsin, the nation's leading cranberry state. Here.

8/11/00 From the Wisconsin Daily Tribune: Growers ask for more help

 

 


Cranberry story finally "live" on ABCNEWS.COM

8/25/00 About a month ago Cranberry Stressline had a "sneak preview" of a draft of Mark Baumgartner's article on the cranberry crisis. Now the final edited version is on the popular news site and web portal ABCNEWS.COM. It is featured in the business section. Entitled "Bitter times in the bog: cranberry glut drives prices underwater," the article quotes Chris Phillips, Don Hatton and Hal Brown.

The article also includes a slide show, with pictures of Betty Brown, Tim DeMoranville and (wearing a cap) Stoyan Iordanov.(Click on the logo on the right about 1/3 down the page.)

View article

Also in the news: Nantucket Cranberry Festival cancelled, future bleak for industry on island.


CMC meeting may draw crowd

8/21/00 The Cranberry Marketing Committee will hold its regular meeting on Monday, August 28th at 8:30AM in the Plymouth (MA) Sheraton Hotel. Stressline has heard from a number of growers who don't generally attend these meetings that they are planning to attend in order to voice their opinion that the marketing order should be rescinded. Some feel that there is not enough time for all the appeals to be resolved before harvest; while others have concerns about how the appeal process is being implemented. Others are of the opinion that because the harvest is predicted to be smaller than expected, the order would be an unnecessary hardship.


8/21/00 by Research Analyst: Hal Levey from www.individualinvestor.com

Beverage stocks have had a frothy few months on Wall Street, but have shares flown too high, too fast?

"The latest upswing traces its genesis to early March. Since then, shares of Coca Cola have risen 23%. Shares of Coke's archrival, up about 30% over the same period. The stocks benefited from (and continue to enjoy) renewed interest from investors as they realized that there's a whole world outside of ``dot-com'' land. A rising tide lifts all boats, says Argus Research analyst Daniel Peris, who adds that beverage stocks have been buoyed in part by a number of company-specific factors." Entire press release

Growers sue former cooperative CEO

8/18/00 Tri-valley is a cooperative in California which recently declared bankruptcy after its sales plummeted. The board fired their chief executive, Joseph Famalette. Now he faces a class action law suit by over 500 farmers who allege that Famalette fraudulently induced the growers to approve the change from receiving cash from the co-op's pooling system to receiving stocks instead. The lawsuit is pending.

There are many similarities between the plight of Ocean Spray growers and the west coast Tri Valley farmers. The most significant is the role that bad management, rather than weather or market forces, had on causing the crisis. Tri Valley farmers also asked for USDA assistance. The USDA plans to buy fruit from the growers for Federal food programs. However, remarks to the San Francisco Chronicle by Enrique Figueroa, deputy undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs at USDA, are telling:

"The USDA at this point, I don't think is going to extend any other assistance programs directly to the people affected by this problem," said Enrique Figueroa, deputy undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs at USDA. "What may occur, however, is for Congress to draft some legislation to specifically target some of these affected growers."

Not a natural disaster

Figueroa said the department just doesn't have a way to help farmers who are victims of what appears to be a poorly managed cooperative.

"This is not a situation caused by a natural disaster. This has to be rooted in the decisions of the management. . . . The ironic part about that is that it's a co-op, which is owned by the growers," he said.

Figueroa is also in charge of the USDA cranberry program and this week attended both the Cranberry Institute and the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers' Association meetings in Wareham, MA.

San Francisco Chronicle article | with images

Related: Tri Valley wins financing package | Farmers pin hopes on financing package


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