10 CapitalPress.com
August 19, 2016
Oregon grower delivers irst cranberries of the year
By ERIC MORTENSON
Big cranberry crop seen for
surplus-plagued growers
Capital Press
For the second year in a
row, grower Charlie Ruddell
of Bandon, Ore., is claiming
the earliest delivery of cran-
berries in North America.
Ruddell planned to deliver
the irst of 2016’s harvest on
Aug. 11 to the Ocean Spray
co-op receiving station on the
Oregon Coast. That’s eight
days earlier than 2015, which
itself was about two weeks
earlier than normal.
Ocean Spray spokeswom-
an Kellyanne Dignan con-
irmed Ruddell is the co-op’s
irst delivery and said she is
conident he’s the earliest in
North America as well.
“Mother Nature’s the boss”
on harvest timing, she said.
An unusually warm grow-
ing season in 2015 made
many crops ready for harvest
earlier than normal. Ruddell,
of Randolph Cranberries Inc.,
said other factors are in play
this year.
The variety he’s growing,
Demoranville, blooms earlier
and matures faster than other
commercial varieties, Ruddell
said.
Secondly, Ocean Spray is
paying growers a bonus of
$2.50 per 100-pound barrel
for cranberries that are lighter
color than in years past. A $2
per barrel bonus is available
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Courtesy of Charlie Ruddell, Randolph Cranberries Inc.
A bog of cranberries, looded and with the berries loating free, stands ready for harvest Aug. 10 near
Bandon, Ore. Grower Charlie Ruddell said the harvest is about eight days earlier than 2015. He said
the cranberry variety and incentives offered by Ocean Spray are factors in the early harvest.
for cranberries delivered by
Sept. 19. If a cranberry bog
produces 250 barrels, that
amounts to a $1,125 bonus.
“It sets well with me,”
Ruddell said.
Dignan, the Ocean Spray
spokeswoman, said the co-
op’s desired color standard
has changed over time. Cran-
berries traditionally were
made into juice or sauce,
which requires a darker berry.
But now most cranberries are
dried and sweetened to make
“craisins,” and a lighter-col-
ored, earlier berry is prefera-
ble, she said.
Wisconsin and Massachu-
setts rank irst and second in
U.S. cranberry production.
New Jersey is third, and Or-
egon and Washington are
fourth and ifth, respectively.
The U.S. usually produces be-
tween 8 million and 9 million
barrels annually. The Oregon
crop is valued at about $12
million per year.
Dignan said Ocean
Spray will release updat-
ed 2016 crop projections
soon. Ruddell said his 2015
crop was down 5 or 6 per-
cent from 2014, but might
bounce back this year. “My
intuition is that we will
have a pretty strong year,”
he said.
Cranberry
farmers,
already struggling with
a large inventory and
low prices, will produce
slightly more cranberries
this year than in 2015, the
U.S. Department of Agri-
culture predicted Friday.
Growers in Wisconsin,
by far the top cranber-
ry-producing state, report-
ed isolated hail damage,
but still expect a bet-
ter-than-average crop be-
cause of mostly favorable
weather, according to the
USDA’s National Agricul-
tural Statistics Service.
Meanwhile, Oregon
and Washington grow-
ers are expected to come
close to last year’s strong
crops.
Overall, USDA fore-
casts that growers in the
ive states with commer-
cial cranberry farms will
harvest 8.59 million bar-
rels, up from 8.56 million
barrels in 2015. Each bar-
rel equals 100 pounds of
cranberries.
Bumper crops in recent
years, including a record
8.95 million barrels in
2013, have led to a cran-
berry surplus that has hov-
ered around 90 percent of
yearly global demand.
Average prices rebounded
slightly last year to $31.60
a barrel from $30.90 in
2014, but remain below
historic levels.
Oregon growers last
year produced a record
562,000 barrels. The
USDA forecasts a coming
harvest of 530,000 barrels,
which would be the state’s
second-largest cranberry
crop ever.
Washington produced
198,000 barrels, falling
just short of a record yield
set in 1994. The USDA
forecasts a 2016 harvest
of 194,000 barrels.
The USDA predicted
harvests will fall in Mas-
sachusetts and New Jer-
sey.
Cranberry growing re-
gions in those states are
in drought or abnormally
dry conditions, the USDA
noted.
Fresno County’s production value drops 6 percent during drought
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
Drought was a key factor as
the total receipts from Fresno
County decreased by more than
6 percent in 2015, an industry
insider says.
Farm gate receipts in the
county totaled $6.61 billion
last year, down from the $7.04
billion in 2014, according
to county Agricultural Com-
missioner Les Wright’s most
recent Crop and Livestock
Report.
Water-supply issues were a
top concern last year, as were
the slippage of some commodity
prices and labor shortages, said
Ryan Jacobsen, chief executive
officer of the Fresno County
Farm Bureau.
“It dropped a little bit more
than I was probably expecting,”
Jacobsen said. “It was definitely
not going to be the highs we ex-
perienced with the 2014 report.”
Fresno County was the na-
tion’s top county in agricultural
sales in the 2012 Census of Ag-
riculture.
The total value of crops sold
was greater than those in 23
states. But the county has since
slipped to No. 3 behind Tulare
and Kern counties, according to
their annual crop reports.
In 2014, Tulare County’s
$8.1 billion in total crop val-
ue led the nation, followed by
Kern County’s $7.55 billion.
Fresno had $7.04 billion in
2014.
Jacobsen has said growers in
Fresno County have not been
able to produce to their full ca-
pacity because of water shortag-
es, including a shutoff of federal
water to much of the San Joa-
quin Valley in 2014 and 2015
and cutbacks in annual alloca-
tions in western Fresno County
because of endangered species
concerns. About one-quarter
of the county farmland has
been fallowed because of the
drought.
Fresno County growers pro-
duced nearly 400 commodities
last year, of which 62 exceeded
$1 million in value, Wright told
the county Board of Supervisors
on Aug. 9.
Almonds were the top crop at
$1.2 billion, followed by grapes
at $896 million, poultry at $561
million, cattle and calves at
$552 million and tomatoes at
$520 million.
Vegetable crops saw an in-
crease in value last year, rising
nearly 5 percent to $59 million.
But decreases occurred in
field crops (42 percent), seed
crops (31 percent), fruit and
nut crops (6.6 percent), nursery
products (25.7 percent), live-
stock and poultry (9.4 percent),
livestock and poultry products
(31 percent), apiary (2.4 per-
cent) and industrial crops (54
percent), according to the re-
port.
In addition, two of the coun-
ty’s former staples — pistachios
and cotton — fell out of the top
10. Pistachio production took a
hit last year because of “blank-
ing” caused by the drought and
a lack of winter chilling hours,
and cotton acreage has de-
creased significantly because of
reduced water supplies.
With the water situation
having improved somewhat in
2016, Jacobsen said he expects
this year’s production to hold
steady.
“It’s so hard because we’re
talking about such a significant-
ly large number (of commod-
ities), and just one or two ma-
jor commodities could shift it
one way or another,” he said. “I
would expect it to be relatively
flat this year, or maybe a rela-
tively small gain.”
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Louie Colombini, general manager of
Westside Farmers Cooperative Gin
Inc. in Tranquility, Calif., holds a cotton
lower while standing in a cotton ield in
2015. Once one of Fresno County’s most
lucrative crops, cotton has fallen out of
the county’s top 10 in terms of receipts
as acreage has been decimated by water
cutbacks.
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