SALEM, Ore. — The federal government’s decision to spend $55 million on cranberries may dent a global glut, support prices and speed up payments to growers.
The purchase, however, won’t address production continuing to outpace demand, a step the U.S. Department of Agriculture declined to take this year.
“We have a very serious problem,” Long Beach Peninsula cranberry grower Malcolm McPhail said. “You don’t want anyone to have a crop failure. But you’d like to see average crops to keep things in perspective.”
U.S. and Canadian cranberry farmers produced this year a crop expected to be nearly as big as last year’s record harvest of 12 million barrels.
Between this year’s cranberries and fruit still unsold from 2013, the global cranberry supply stands at 16 million barrels (1.6 billion pounds). Demand over the next year is expected to be about 8.2 million barrels, according to the U.S. Cranberry Marketing Committee.
To trim the nearly 100 percent surplus, the USDA announced Nov. 21 it will buy approximately 680,000 barrels of cranberries in the form of juice, sauce and dried berries to distribute to food banks and schools.
The USDA buys cranberries every year, but this purchase will be a record and in addition to the $32 million the agency already planned to spend this year.
The industry likely will consider again asking the USDA to control volumes to manage the surplus, Soares said.
