Tim Feit, executive director, and Linda Prehn, chairperson of United Cranberry Growers Cooperative in Wausau, WI, spoke with The Produce News in early September to announce the initiatives of the new and fast growing organization.

Established in 2010, the UCGC is an agricultural cooperative of independent cranberry growers whose mission is to promote and increase the sale of cranberries worldwide; to Harvesting cranberries. (Courtesy of United Cranberry Growers Cooperative)understand its role in the supply of cranberries; and to act as a leader and the voice of independent cranberry growers worldwide.

“Traditionally, the North American cranberry crop has been controlled by a limited number of handlers which could make it difficult to source whole cranberries,” explained Mr. Feit. “If a processor wanted to introduce a new cranberry product, their supply options were limited and that usually meant they either had to go to individual growers or handlers that were most likely competitors with their own cranberry products.”

But now, UCGC is offering the produce, food and beverage industries a new option for sourcing cranberries.

“This alternative source of whole cranberries is made possible by directly linking these companies to growers,” said Ms. Prehn. “Now processors looking for whole cranberries needed for fresh, juice, dried cranberries and other cranberry-based products have access to a stable, long-term supply. This new supply alternative has been made possible because the UCGC is handling fruit and working with its grower members to market their cranberry crops.”

The cooperative is particularly interested in working with processors who may want to develop new, high-content cranberry products but thought that the cranberries weren’t available or were too difficult to source. The UCGC is made up of 90 independent cranberry growers from Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Oregon and Canada, who combined produce over 120 million pounds of cranberries.

“As our membership base continues to grow and we handle more growers’ fruit, the UCGC has the opportunity to be a significant force in the supply of cranberries in 2013,” said Ms. Prehn. “It is through this increase that the UCGC will be able to change supply dynamics and provide our partners a direct link to independent grower’s crops.”

Another new industry development includes the increase in dryer capacity needed to process cranberries into sweetened dried cranberries. This additional capacity to dry cranberries means that companies that want to develop their own sweetened dried cranberry products now have more options when it comes to directly processing fruit into value-added products.

“With new and expanding domestic and international markets for sweetened dried cranberries, food companies that want to create their own lines not only have access to cranberries through the UCGC, but also the ability to have them processed,” said Mr. Feit.

More broadly stated, the UCGC’s three main goals indicate its initiatives. In increasing the sale of cranberries, independent members of the cooperative can join in the efforts to secure government purchases, work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food & Drug Administration on labeling to increase cranberries in juice drinks and other products.

“Understanding the supply of cranberries and the independent growers’ role in the supply, someone from ‘our’ side needs to dive into the industry supply numbers and determine independent supply and demand,” said Ms. Prehn. “Sure, our handlers do it, but probably only as it relates to each of them, not as a whole. Ocean Spray understands their side, we need to understand our side and make recommendations to the Cranberry Marketing Committee, the USDA and the Canadian counterparts of these groups.”

Promoting the interests of independent growers worldwide and acting as a source of reliable, quality information to growers and to the industry, means that producers need to stand up for themselves as a united source. Ms. Prehn said that there are many sources of information out there, but not one is dedicated to independent growers.

“We invite all growers in the United States, Canada and Chile to join us,” she said. “Membership in United Cranberry is $100 per contract. We assess members 10 cents per 100-pound barrel. The assessment is based on the most recent harvest, which was in 2011. The more growers that join us, the stronger we will be.”