Thousands of tonnes of fruit were destroyed by the summer storm, but Wisconsin still expects to produce more than 163,000t or at least 3.6 million barrels.
Only about five per cent of the US crop is sold as fresh fruit largely in November and December.
“The early feedback I’ve had is that it’s a pretty good crop,” said Tom Lochner, executive director of the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association. He believes that the state will exceed its record crop of 2005 which came in at 3.66m barrels.
Although cranberries are consumed as ingredients year round in the UK in increasing volume, the product in its fresh form really only has a market at Christmas-time, and forecasts from the US department of agriculture estimate crops in Massachusetts of 1.75m barrels, New Jersey with 490,000 barrels and Oregon with 485,000 barrels. “This year growers across North America have produced a healthy crop that should easily meet demand through Christmas,” said Chris Philips of marketer Ocean Spray, in Massachusetts.
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