Random shots from up top. Be safe everyone!   
    
    
   

I am starting to hear some rumblings about a less than stellar WI crop. Back in July at the CMC, the estimate was about 5.5mm bbls up from 4.9 delivered in 2014. Then a few weeks back I heard that OSpray was thinking more like 5mm bbls for this year, or more in line with the 2014 crop and a far cry from the 6mm 2013 crop. Now I’ve just heard that some of the newer varieties in WI are showing some rot, 8-10%. I don’t know how widespread it is. And I don’t know if that is figured into the estimates or not….but as one wise man (you know who you are) once told me “big crops get bigger and small crops get smaller”…. I’m thinking that there might be a scramble for sdc berries for the WI dryers…..

I get worried when my blog stats fly off the roof on a random Tuesday in September.  Makes me wonder if anything is going on in cranberry land that I don’t know about.  (I am sure there are LOTS of things I don’t know about!)  What I do know is that the industry people think the Wisconsin crop is ok, not huge, not small.  That would probably be a good thing.

I also know that there are lots of things going on with the lawsuit.  Depositions have begun or are close to starting. Subpoenas have been issued and answered.  Both sides are lining up experts and building their case.  This case is on a relative fast track as these things go, but I don’t think anyone should bank on big bucks (if any) soon.  If you are an independent grower struggling to make ends meet, don’t plan on this lawsuit as a bailout.  Get to your bank and work something out.

I saw new releases that Oregon was harvesting already!  Now that is a surprise as I understand  that they usually harvest really late, sometimes early November.  I think that this early harvest was due to newer varieties that color up early, and the majority of Oregon has a ways to go until harvest.

Ms. Prehn: 

This office is Oregon co-counsel in the case against Ocean Spray venued in Massachusetts (Case # CV-12016-RWZ).

Thank you for your informative blog you have created for cranberry growers.

We are having a meeting on August 13, 2015 at 7 pm at the Barn (Bandon’s Conference and Community Center) in Bandon, Oregon. The purpose of the meeting is to update Oregon Independent cranberry growers and Oregon Ocean Spray B pool cranberry growers concerning the status of the lawsuit. Much has happened since our last meeting. All such growers are invited to attend.

I would appreciate it if you would post a Notice of this meeting on your blog. If you have any questions please contact me.

Thank you,

Shala McKenzie Kudlac

Carleton Law Offices

Bandon, Oregon

(541)347-2468

Nothing new, lots new…depends on your point of view. 

 Wisconsin seems to be growing a good crop.  Maybe not as small as last year, but not as big as two years ago.  A good solid crop.  I hear the same is true in Quebec.  Mass is up, the crop is good there.  Vancouver might be up a little.  The west coast is needing rain.  The drought is probably out there is probably good for growing a good crop, but not so much for harvesting it.  Haven’t heard much about New Jersey.  So all in all a good crop.  Not the biggest ever, but we still know how to grow them.  
The lawsuit drama is picking up steam.  Subpoenas have been issued.  Discovery is taking place as I type.   For the larger handlers the amount of information requested is laborious, due to the length of time the subpoenas cover….the one I saw covered 2004 until  present.  One handler estimated 100,000s of pages.  Oh my.  And both sides are requesting documents…can’t blame this all on one side.  I don’t know how this ends.  Mainly because I can’t see how all that information will be distilled down to usable data.  I hope someone has a plan!  One thing seems sure…the judge in the case has the process rolling along.  Don’t ask for delays, because she is not inclined to grant them.  I like this lady! Finally after 3 years we are getting some action/resolution.  And resolution is what I want so we can all go back to selling cranberries.  The best solution.  

The last reporting period for the CMC indicated some good news…but really didn’t it seem that our sales increases were to the Gov’t and that the inventory still remains in concentrate?? The CMC is coming up in a few weeks out in MA.  I’m thinking they will report numbers and look at each other.  Tell some stories in the hallways. Hear about our good marketing efforts…and (rightly) congratulate Michelle on becoming the ED.  I wish we were using the tools available to us re supply, but sadly that isn’t the case.  

Finally, price hell for the independent growers continues.  

I went to the meeting that the lawyers representing the plaintiffs vs OSpray held to update independent growers on this lawsuit. Pretty interesting stuff. I’m not going to get into the details, but suffice it to say, you had to be there. But I will post the firm’s website regarding the suit, so you can follow it here

https://www.lawtoncates.com/library/class-action/cranberry-case/

Some of you might be following the raisin case in the Supreme Court. The court handed down their ruling
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/06/22/supreme-court-raisin-farmer/28475623/

You can check out your congressman’s vote here

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/114-2015/h362
And here

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/114-2015/h361
Looks like they will do a revote on Tuesday. If you care about exports, and we do (come on, exports are the way out of oversupply!!) let your congressman know that we support this bill.  Especially if they already voted yes…they need to know we are with them in this!

a big thanks to Congressman Sean Duffy WI-7for his yes vote…all cranberry growers need a level playing field to sell our cranberries world wide!!

I received this email today…am passing in on:

This office is Wisconsin counsel in the case against Ocean Spray venued in Massachusetts (Case # CV-12016-RWZ).

I understand you operate a blog for cranberry growers.

We are having a meeting on June 22, 2015 at 7 pm at the Mead Hotel in Wisconsin Rapids. The purpose of the meeting is to update Wisconsin Independent cranberry growers and Wisconsin Ocean Spray B pool cranberry growers concerning the status of the lawsuit. All such growers are invited to attend.

I would appreciate it if you would post a Notice of this meeting on you blog. If you have any questions please contact me.

Thank you.

Very truly yours,

Jim Olson
Lawton & Cates, S.C.
Madison, WI 53703

lindaprehn:

This is encouraging news overall, but the inventory of concentrate has to be addressed.

Originally posted on CMC Industry News:

The Cranberry Marketing Committee has posted the 2014 Q2 Position Summary report and the Five Year Comparison by Crop Year and Year-to-Date reports to our website at www.uscranberries.com.  These reports, as well as several comparison reports, can be found under The Cranberry Story/Data and Reports or by going to the industry tab on the right side of the screen and then to Data and Reports.  A few general observations from 2014 CY2nd Cycle Report Five Year Comparison by Cycle are as follows:

• Increase in sales – both domestic and international year-to-date comparing 2013 vs 2014 (up 9.4% domestic and up 7.5% international for an overall increase in sales of 8.8%)
• Government purchase significantly increased in CY2014 (up 255 %)
• Shrink is up (12.6%)
• Increase in ending inventory is up (up 5.6 %) due to concentrate (up 12%).  However, the increase in ending inventory from 2012 to 2013 during this same time period was 22.7% so it is important to note…

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lindaprehn:

Scott you will be missed!

Originally posted on CMC Industry News:

“There is always an opportunity to educate consumers about the versatility of a food they enjoy but don’t always think about throughout the year”~ Scott J. Soares, Executive Director, CMC

May 2015 article, “In Pursuit Of A Paradigm Shift For Cranberry Sales“, ProduceBusiness (page 105)

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The judge ruled on some motions last week, you can read for yourself here:
cranwarsmay2015

My take on it is that the judge is allowing three parts of the original case to go forward. And she wants this three year old case to start moving. There are a few additional dates scheduled, and then I think the case will move into discovery, meaning depositions and if the case isn’t settled, into court.

At this point I would imagine (though I haven’t spoken to anyone involved) the plaintiffs are excited that the judge is allowing the case to move forward. I also figure that while OSpray would have preferred to have the judge dismiss the case, they are anxious to set the record straight as to what I am sure they think are faulty “facts” that the plaintiffs have put forward. (again, I haven’t spoken to anyone involved)

This is why we have a court system people, to try to establish the facts and get an independent verdict. Of course, there is the chance that the case will settle and we won’t learn anything. Ah, the joy:)

lindaprehn:

I just learned that the trademark on Cranberry Cove was abandoned as if 6/30/2014. Looks like we won’t be seeing these packages on the shelves.

Originally posted on United Cranberry Blog:

I have to say, I don’t know what to think of Cranberry Cove. It says on the label “made with Ocean Spray cranberries” with the OS logo. What it doesn’t say, is Ocean Spray trademarked and owns the Cranberry Cove name. This is an Ocean Spray product. I found them in my local Wal-Mart. $1.00 for 3.5oz. That equals $4.57/lb. Clearly someone is making $$ on cranberries.

When turning over the bag (which, by the way, I like: the graphics are excellent) I looked at the ingredients. Cranberries, Sugar, Citric acid, sunflower oil and ELDERBERRY JUICE(for color). Emphasis mine. Since when do we have to add acid and color back into cranberries? Seems like they take so much out they have to add stuff back in? This is the first time in my memory that we’ve added color to cranberries. Cranberry Cove seems to ME to be the Choice product…

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The Cranberry Marketing order is up for a vote…to renew or not to renew that IS the question!

Sure, I have my problems with the CMC.  I go to most meetings and get frustrated, and vow never to go again.  Mainly this is due to the fact that I believe we should use the part of the order that allows us to limit supply in an over supply situation.  That handler withhold or producer allotment has only happened 4? times in the history of the order, so it is rare that the members come together on that item.

What members DO agree on, mostly, are the data collection parts of the order and the leveraging the power of all of us growers to invest in our own crop and futures by accessing the matching funds to bring the cranberry to all parts of the world.  I believe the marketing efforts of the CMC both domestic and international have been outstanding.  We have been targeting specific markets in the past few years and I think the results are just beginning to show.  It would be premature to stop those efforts now, as I believe that the only way to get out of this over supply situation is the sell our cranberries, everywhere.  Period.

So, the time is now growers.  The ballots are in the mail to your farm.  Vote no, or vote yes…but please vote!

For starters, Trigs is generically calling a sweetened dried cranberry a Craisin. If I were OSpray I would have a problem with that. 

The product is apparently (elderberry) OSprays choice product which they claimed they would never sell retail.   See above. 

Finally. $5.99/lb??  Wowzer. I’m calling Trig.

Don’t you love it when I go shopping??  

I’m thinking the concentrate auction results were good news! The starting auction prices were 11.90, 12.16, $12.77 and the final prices after 7 rounds of bidding were $14.65, $12.91 and $15.02. All up above the last auction. Am I missing something here? Clearly those prices are not good enough for the grower, but up is up and that is better than down.

But on another note, in looking at this slide that Scott Soares showed at the Cranberry Institute meeting in March it seems like our 2014 carryin didn’t have an huge supply of whole frozen fruit or processed goods, but a large supply of concentrate. If I’m reading this right at 8/31/14 we had a carry in of 2.6mm barrels of whole frozen fruit. That is the frozen fruit that would carry us unitl the 2014 crop is sufficiently frozen and ready in January-february 2015. Given that we have capacity to dry about 8mm barrels of cranberries into SDCs, (my estimate) the 2mm barrels of carry in seems about right or even light. That would suggest an interesting tightening of the SDC market. That along with a good not great crop in 2014, and a government purchase that will absorb 400,000 bbls…the CMC numbers that are about to be reported as of today 4/30 will tell an interesting story.

Comments anyone??

lawsuitosprayresponse3272015

lawsuit3272015

Sorry for the earlier post, I tried to do it from my phone and I am not that tech savvy…

https://ecf.mad.uscourts.gov/doc1/09516692197

https://ecf.mad.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_multidocs.pl?caseid=147455&arr_de_seq_nums=454&magic_num=&pdf_header=&hdr=&pdf_toggle_possible=1&caseid=147455&zipit=&magic_num=&arr_de_seq_nums=454&got_warning=&create_roa=&create_appendix=&bates_format=&dkt=&got_receipt=1