TO: Decas Growers

FROM: John C. Decas

DATE: February 22, 2000

RE: Important News Regarding Cranberry Marketing Order

While Ocean Spray has yet to declare their position on a Cranberry Marketing Order for the 2000 crop, they will soon do so and they now know that Northland’s support is available for a volume regulation. This means that Ocean Spray can add their four votes on the Cranberry Marketing Committee, if they so decide, to the Wisconsin Independent vote, which is represented by a Northland officer, for the purpose of disposing of a portion of the 2000 crop of all US growers.

We cannot afford to wait until the last minute to prepare our response in the event Ocean Spray decides to join with Northland to dispose of a portion of your coming crop. John Swendrowski of Northland is recommending disposing of about 25% of the crop if the 2000 crop is about the same as the 1999 crop.

If this is imposed upon you, the following will happen:

1. You grow, harvest and deliver your berries to us as your handler.
2. The USDA, through the CMC, confiscates 25% of your berries without any compensation.
3. Decas, by law, must dump them or buy them from the government at a price established by the government. The government then solicits bids for an equal amount of berries, using the money which I would otherwise pay to the grower. The berries the government will purchase using your money will come from a handler who has extra berries that he cannot sell in normal marketing channels.
4. The government then dumps the berries, the cost of which is included in the purchase price. In other words, you pay for the dumping since dumping costs will be deducted from your payment from the 75% of remaining berries that the handler is allowed to sell.
5. Since a significant surplus will still exist, the returns on your marketable (free) berries will not likely increase.
6. You can expect 2-4 more years of this program before the surplus goes away.

I urge you, as I did at our recent grower meeting, to help us head off this potential problem before it takes hold. You can do this by writing to David Farrimond or Rob Hiller regarding your opposition to a volume regulation. Dave and Rob will share your letter with all CMC members. I would also ask you to write all others on the enclosed list and urge them to contact Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman regarding your opposition to the dumping of any part of your crop.

Simultaneously, and as a member of the CMC Subcommittee on Marketing Orders, it is my responsibility to recommend to the CMC the fairest and most efficient way to conduct a program if they so choose. I will emphasize:

1. Making fresh fruit exempt.
2. Insuring that handlers can buy back under the allotment version of the order.
3. That the committee assess the handlers who sell berries to the CMC for the cost of dumping buy back berries, rather than "clobber" those who sell their restricted berries into the marketplace.
4. To impose a separate assessment to handlers for berries imported from outside the US.
5. Design the program in a manner which will result in dumping berries in growing areas proportionate to the increase in production of those areas. Restricting growers to 100% of their sales history may be the way to accomplish this.

As a handler, I will:

1. Recommend to the CMC to vote against any volume regulation that will cause harm to US handlers and their growers who do not contribute to the surplus, and will benefit handlers who caused the surplus. Making a handler who has inventories that match sales, robs that handler of the ability to fill orders, and therefore brands him in the marketplace as an unreliable supplier.
2. Recommend that the money that the CMC needs to conduct and enforce the order be used instead to market berries rather than dump berries. The committee, after all, is called a Cranberry Marketing Committee, not a Cranberry Dumping Committee. I propose that these monies be used to expand the generic promotional program both nationally and internationally. I also propose that the CMC act on behalf of our industry to get the extremely high cranberry tariffs reduced the way other commodity groups have been able to do. These tariffs are as high as 30% in many countries into which cranberries are sold. Until we get that job done, we will not be able to maximize our sales into countries like Germany, Taiwan, Japan and China.
3. Represent your best interests by aligning with other Independent handlers to coordinate our opposition to a dumping program. We will carry our opposition to the CMC and, if necessary, to the Secretary of Agriculture, where we will make our position clearly understood.
4. Point out to the CMC and to Secretary Glickman, if necessary, that members of the CMC who contract cranberry growers from other countries have no right to require US growers and handlers dump fruit while foreign-grown berries continue to flood the US market.

Finally, I wish to emphasize that I am most hopeful that we don’t have to get into unnecessary conflict with Ocean Spray on this or any other issue. They are reorganizing in the hope of fixing their problems. I sincerely wish Mr. Hawthorne full success in this endeavor, and pledge to him my willingness to work together as an industry on issues that affect us all.

I appreciate any effort on your part. You may wish to send me a copy of any letter you write regarding the Cranberry Marketing Order.

Sincerely,

John C. Decas

Mr. David Farrimond

Cranberry Marketing Committee

266 Main Street

Wareham, MA 02571

Mr. Robert Hiller, III

Mary’s Pond Road

Rochester, MA 02770

Congressman Barney Frank

2210 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515

Congressman William D. Delahunt

15 Cottage Avenue

4^th Floor

Quincy, MA 02169

Senator Edward M. Kennedy

Suite 2400

JFK Federal Office Building

Boston, MA 02203

Senator John F. Kerry

1 Bowdoin Street

10^th Floor

Boston, MA 02114

Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman

U.S. Department of Agriculture

14th & Independence Ave. SW

Washington, D.C. 20250

Mrs. Patty Petrella, USDA

1115 Broadford Road

Mountain Lake Park, MD 21550

NOTES:

Letters to others on the list should follow. You may wish to wait until the CMC makes its decision on the 28^th, but be prepared to act quickly if the CMC decides to regulate. Remember, the CMC can only recommend to Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman. Secretary Glickman decides whether or not to adopt the CMC recommendation.

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