Cranberry Stressline
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Mar. 1 - 7, 2000
Marketing
Committee may reconvene: 3/6/00 Stressline has learned that representatives from Ocean Spray and Northland have been in discussions in another attempt to reach a viable compromise on a volume restriction for cranberries. The devil, it would seem, is in working out the details. Ocean Spray has agreed to participating in generic promotion. Ocean Spray has also agreed to a smaller volume restriction. Sources say the number is 12%. The impasse between Ocean Spray and Northland has been on the formula for determining the estimated crop figure from which the percentage is established. The Cranberry Marketing Committee rules enable three or more members to reconvene a meeting. They are allowed make their final decision in a conference call if they choose, rather than in a public meeting. Stressline readership grows 3/6/00 It was just announced that 50% of all American homes now have the Internet. This is seen as the critical mass. Soon Internet connections will be as common as televisions. Word of mouth, newspaper articles, and the growth of the Internet itself have all contributed to an increase in readership of Cranberry Stressline. February was a record month. Read the latest site statistics HERE |
Fallout continues from Cranberry Marketing Committee meeting 3/5/00 "Cranberry debate bogs down over supply: disagreement over the amount of a proposed limit on production leaves a tart taste for the industry," reads the headline in today's Cape Cod Times. Indeed, reports from those at the meeting of the Cranberry Marketing Committee this week indicate that the meeting was hardly one marked by cooperation between parties. CEO's John Decas of Decas Cranberries and John Swendrowski of Northland have made their views clear. They reiterate their dismay over what they see as Ocean Spray's intractable stance on a volume regulation in the Cape Cod Times. Ocean Spray CEO Robert Hawthorne is responding to press inquires through long-time Ocean Spray communications manager, Chris Philips. Philips, when asked by the Cape Cod Times why Hawthorne was declining to speak to the press on the marketing order, said his priorities were elsewhere*, stating "he is adamant he's going to focus on the business." Read Cape Cod Times article HERE * Editor's note: Should the CEO be the chief communications officer? Read what John D. Graham, CEO of Fleishman-Hillard, Ocean Spray's own PR firm and the top agricultural communication consultation firm in the world, has to say HERE.
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| Political Action: Senators, Reps, CCCGA, urge Federal help 3/3/00 A group of fourteen members of Congress (including Sen. Kohl - see letter below) from cranberry producing states have asked the USDA to help relieve the surplus. In a letter to Secretary Glickman, they write "we strongly encourage USDA to use its existing commodity purchasing authority as quickly as possible to remove a surplus of cranberries and stave off further economic damage in our rural communities." If the USDA purchases 500,000 barrels of a 3,000,000 barrel surplus, as suggested, this would be approximately a 17% reduction in the surplus. Read Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article here The Cape Cod Cranberry Growers' Association also sent a request to Senators Kennedy and Kerry, and Representatives Delahunt, McGovern and Frank for FY 2001 on 2/25/00 which you can read HERE | Easy to print version Sen. Kohl responds to a grower's concerns 3/2/00 The following letter from U.S. Senator Herb Kohl, Wi., dated Feb. 9, 2000, was received by a Wisconsin cranberry grower: Thank you for contacting me about the impact of cranberry surpluses on Wisconsin's cranberry producers. I share your concern and wanted to update you and recent Congressional action to reduce the financial impact of the surplus. The conference agreement for the recently enacted omnibus appropriations bills directs the Agricultural Marketing Service to assess existing inventories of cranberries and to purchase surplus product for use in U.S. Department of Agriculture nutrition programs. In addition, I joined other Senators and Representatives from our nation's top cranberry states in bringing the serious consequences of the surplus to Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman. We asked the secretary to purchase 500,000 barrels of cranberries and to consider using overseas marketing programs, emergency farm relief authorities, and other programs to help alleviate low prices for cranberries. Thank you again for contacting me about the cranberry surplus. Please contact me if I can be of further assistance. Sincerely, Inventions: 3/2/00 From the Cape Cod Times, grower-inventor Keith Fenner, hopes new fertilizer spreader will make life easier on the bogs. Read Cape Cod Times story HERE. |
Justice Department names special counsel
for agriculture antitrust, Kohl announces 3/3/00 Ed. note: This was released Jan. 20, 2000; but just came to Stressline's attention. WASHINGTON U.S. Senator Herb Kohl announced that the U.S. Department of Justice today named Doug Ross as Special Counsel to oversee agriculture antitrust issues. Kohl is the Ranking Member of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee and last September contacted the Justice Department urging the appointment of a Special Counsel. According to the Justice Department, Ross has 25 years of law enforcement experience in antitrust and consumer protection issues. "The wave of consolidation occurring in agriculture, now and over the last decade, raises real concerns for the farmers of my state. I'm glad that the Justice Department recognizes the need to protect farmers from threats to fair competition, and I look forward to working closely with Mr. Ross," Kohl said. Read entire press release here | Easy to print version Hawthorne, Swendrowski and Decas in battle of words 3/2/00 In their continuing coverage of the crisis in cranberries, the Patriot Ledger published an article entitled "Cranberry growers' infighting takes toll." Cranberry Marketing Committee director David Farrimond, sounding much like a father chastising three quarreling sons, is quoted as saying "we're in a global market now; let's act like it. Let's see what we can do to sell more product. The more information we can get out to consumers, the more demand there's going to be. There's a problem here. It will continue to be a problem for the foreseeable future unless it is addressed. It's the grower that ultimately suffers from it. There's too much time spent on finger-pointing, blame. We really just have to come together as an industry. If you destroy what you're competing at, then nobody wins.'' Read Patriot Ledger article HERE
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| 3/1/00 A Wisconsin media view: Columnist Avrum Lank say's "America's berryland is safe" In his Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Column, Adding it Up, Avrum Lank writes that the rejection of the marketing order is "the best thing that could happen to growers in Wisconsin, the nation's leading cranberry state." He advocates a strict economic survival of the fittest approach when he writes that "abandoning the law of supply and demand for a headlong plunge into the world of federal marketing orders would have started cranberry farmers down the same path as the dairy industry." Lank is a believer in free markets unimpeded by government regulation. He writes: "In an eerie coincidence, in cranberry production, Wisconsin's main competition comes from less-efficient bogs in New England. Had the cranberry production limits been approved, those Eastern bogs in effect would have been given a subsidy to continue production, even though Wisconsin farmers can produce at a cost that is 30% less on average. Subsidizing such less-efficient producers is foolish when, at base, the cranberry problem stems from overproduction." Noting that global expansion of the market for cranberries is a way to reduce the surplus, he goes on to say that unless this occurs, cranberry bogs in Massachusetts will fail and "society can then use the capital they employed for other, more productive, purposes." Read article HERE 2/29/00 Statement of Ocean Spray
CEO Robert Hawthorne Ocean Spray's recently appointed CEO Robert Hawthorne issued the following statement regarding the decision by the Cranberry Marketing Committee to reject surplus controls on cranberries. This industry has missed a crucial opportunity to help its growers. This was a chance to help pull growers out of the depths of an oversupply crisis. While there seemed to be agreement that some sort of limit may be needed sooner or later, we believe it will be too little, too late to help. The clock is ticking on hard-working farm families who built this industry, and who now are suffering through a surplus that has been left unchecked. CONTINUED | Easy to print version In the news: 2/22/00 T.V. news covers Mass. conibear
trap story | 2/17/00 Article in the Middleboro Gazette
| 2/17/00 Ocean Spray
rival supports crop quotas, from The Boston Herald | 2/16/00
Ocean Spray rival favors U.S. quota on cranberries, from the Patriot Ledger | 2/15/00 Unilever considers alliances to market enhanced products
| 2/15/00 Pasco acquires McCain Citrus | 2/14/00 Pepsi in China | Sunkist
elects new board | 2/11/00
Cranberry Growers get bad news: Patriot Ledger | 2/2/00 Odwalla and Fresh Samantha merge |
The media view from Massachusetts: NEW 3/2/00 "All handlers need to work on developing new markets, new product...to move fruit like we never have before.......The golden bullet is increased sales, (Tuesday's vote means that) everyone is forced to come up with avenues to move more fruit." CCCGA Direcotr Jeff LeFleur in The Middleboro Gazette. 3/1/00 Mary Julius reports in the Brockton Enterprise about the growing rift between Ocean Spray and the independents. She quotes John Decas responding to Robert Hawthorne's letter, where Hawthorne wrote "Ocean Spray's overriding interest is in the financial well-being of growers, period, we are completely alone in that regard.'' Decas responds: "This is an arrogant statement. He can't make comments like that without expecting us to take them at face value. He owes it to us to clear up precisely what he means by these powerful statements. He cares more than we do? I've got 160 Massachusetts growers I'm concerned about. I'd be glad to communicate to him the returns we've made to our growers in the last 10 years.'' Decas told The Enterprise that he "has
tried to communicate with Hawthorne in the past, but his 3/1/00 "We were willing to compromise, but there were some very low percentage points that were put on the table that wouldn't have had any effect (on the surplus) at all. We wanted a restriction, but we wanted it to be a meaningful one -- between 10 and 20 percent...... It's going to prolong the pain of a lot of growers in Massachusetts and the country.'' Ocean Spray spokesman Chris Philips The Patriot Ledger 3/1/00 "Those who got us into this are now saying this is the way out to the promised land. I have no faith that would happen." Ocean Spray and Cape Cod cranberry grower Jim Jenkins - from Cape Cod Times article here 3/1/00 Quotes from the Standard Times: "It was an extremely stressful three days. There was a lot of debate and heated exchange, it's sad that the industry didn't come together." Mass. independent handler Rob Hiller. "I expressed a willingness to accept a 12 percent (reduction) deal. I might've even gone to 15 percent, but Ocean Spray rejected it. "They wanted 20 percent or nothing. I'd suggest it's Ocean Spray who missed an opportunity." John Decas "To start dumping 20 percent of our berries would be devastating for us; we're barely eking by; and from a PR perspective, destroying fruit is terrible. I don't know how they (Ocean Spray) could do that. There's nobody out there looking after the small grower. Market restrictions may have been in the interest of the large midwestern cranberry grower, but not the small Massachusetts grower." Mass. cranberry grower Linda Rinta. Standard Times article here 3/1/00 "Ocean Spray, which as a cooperative of growers portrays itself as the sole champion of growers, suggested that controls were opposed by cranberry-processing companies that benefit from the surplus." Boston Globe Business Briefs (scroll down to 2nd item)
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