John Decas on the
Crisis in Cranberries
Decas scores Ocean Spray particularly hard for the cooperative's "early commitment program" which offers discounts to independent processors if they commit to their orders in July. Why, asks Decas, "is Ocean Spray willing to sell berries below cost to their competitors and at the same time work hard to enlarge their handle by encouraging bog expansion?" Decas believes that this practice has been a major cause of crisis in the marketplace. He underscores this by emphasizing the irony of Ocean Spray spokesmen blaming the low prices of private label juices as a factor in Ocean Spray's losing a competitive edge, when in fact they are contributing to the success of private labels by selling them cranberries at a discounted price. It is Decas' contention that if Ocean Spray eliminated the early commitment program the chaotic market would stabilize and the whole industry would benefit. In a fairly detailed exposition he theorizes that the cooperative itself would actually benefit more than the independents from eliminating the early commitment program. He suggests that it would be better if "Ocean Spray bought cheap berries on the spot market when needed, rather than be the main source of cheap berries to private label companies who compete with Ocean Spray for market share." Decas forthrightly states that his company was hurt by this practice when, in 1998, an 80,000 bbl customer they had for twenty-five years began to buy cranberries from Ocean Spray for a discounted price. John Decas has had his go-arounds in the past with Ocean Spray President and CEO Tom Bullock, as Decas notes about Bullock's response to a column in Cranberry News in 1998 when the co-op head wrote in a letter to Ocean Spray grower-owners that Decas' comments were "biased and wrong". Decas insists that his analysis then was "constructive and even-handed" and not meant to be "anti-Ocean Spray." He recognizes Ocean Spray as a "great company with a great brand." He wonders "why do they compromise the things that make money for them with programs (ed. note: like the early commitment program) that are guaranteed losers and that lead to destabilization of our industry?" "One way or the other," writes Decas, " supplies will eventually get back in line with demand. Volume control regulations under the Cranberry Marketing Order Program may be one way to achieve this. I just hope it doesn't happen on the backs of growers who are forced to abandon their bogs." Back to Cranberry Stressline front page
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