yikes! Did you see this about apple juice?

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/11/30/consumer-reports-study-backs-dr-ozs-claim-about-arsenic-in-apple-juice/?test=latestnews

I’m glad we aren’t the united apple growers co operative, but lets remember that the juice bottlers, our bottlers use alot of apple juice in the cranberry juice blens, all of them.

 

Ocean Spray recalls some Craisens

http://healthland.time.com/2011/11/28/ocean-spray-craisins-recalled-for-metal-fragment-contamination/

Thank goodness they caught it and took care of this right away!

Cott layoffs in Dunkirk

http://www.observertoday.com/page/content.detail/id/566012/Layoffs-hit-Cott.html?nav=5047

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE

Enjoy our holiday!

Lassonde earnings reports

http://www.just-food.com/news/clement-pappas-takeover-costs-hit-lassonde-q3-profits_id117373.aspx

So, both Cott and Lassonde are absorbing the acquistions of Cliffstar and Pappas….I wonder what that could mean for us growers?

 

Recent OS letter to growers

2Nov11 Grower Letter (2)

Monroe County, WI growers

A real estate broker called and is trying to locate a marsh for sale, in or near Monroe County.  If you are interested, call or email her: Jeanne Button, with Coldwell   Banker in Sparta 608-633-0070 or email her at button_jeanne@yahoo.com.  She didn’t venture size or price, but has a potential buyer who wants to live on marsh and run it themselves.

Crop update

Harvest is almost done, with Massachusetts delivering a record crop!  Overall, the crop was excellent, however it was NOT excessively large….so we effectively dodged a bullet!  A 7.4-7.5million barrel US crop is very manageable, and several handlers have told me that they are kinda “short”.  Does that mean prices are up?  Well, yes.  Independent base prices will be probably $25.  That is up from a base price of $15 last year, but certainly not enough for many, many growers. The base that I hear tossed around the most is $35 and we have a ways to go.  The OS auction prices for concentrate finished in the $28/range, up from recent auctions.

I was curious as to the WI crop and this is what I learned:

Total
Active acres in Wisc.  in 2010 was 18,449

Total
Active acres in Wisc.  in 2011 is  19,245 , up by 796 acres.

ave
yield in 2010 was 214.0 bbls/acre

Ave
yield expected in 2011  is 228.6 bbls/acre

2010
Crop was 3,947,338

2011
Crop expected to be 4,400,218  Up 452,880 bbls

796
new acres at 228.6bbls/acre  = 181,966 bbls (40% of YOY increase)

YOY
Yield increase on existing acres = 270,914 bbls ( 60% of YOY increase).

Interesting older article about Lassonde

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/business/story.html?id=f82c7f93-ed7d-4398-9b41-416e6935bb29

Just trying to understand the industy’s new partners….both Cott and Lassonde are pretty big, diverse companies and we as growers/ suppliers are just a small bug on their windshild

Cott/Cliffstar 3rd quarter earnings released

http://www.just-drinks.com/news/cott-corp-nine-month-results-lifted-by-cliffstar_id105430.aspx

Needless to say, they could certainly AFFORD to pay us more for cranberries.  Just sayin….