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John Decas presents a scathing indictment of Ocean Spray on surplus 2/28/00 Using their own statements to make his case against a volume regulation to the Cranberry Marketing Committee, John Decas alleges that "Ocean Spray has pursued a course that has virtually bankrupted their company and their growers while falsely proclaiming since 1994 that they were capable of selling all the berries delivered to them, and that the surplus was caused by the Independents and that only Independents would be significantly harmed." Not merely content to guess at the number of times that Ocean Spray spokesmen referred to the surplus as "outside" the co-op, Decas researched their own pronouncements and provided actual quotes. He presented the projections after the record 1997 harvest that the cooperative made to their growers regarding their ability to sell the crop "…by the year 2006 sales volume would increase 2 or 3 fold." John Decas was the senior member of the
Cranberry Marketing Committee which is meeting in Washington
this week to discuss and vote on a recommendation which will be
presented to the Secretary of Agriculture on a volume restriction for
cranberries. (He is now a member of the regulatory subcommittee.) Ocean
Spray dominates the CMC with four member, is in favor of a volume
restriction, and only needs one additional vote to obtain a majority.
The cooperative has denied it is responsible for the surplus, blaming
the independents, a contention that Decas disputes: "Ocean Spray
cannot be allowed to characterize our industry problems as caused by the
Independents while Ocean Spray stood by helplessly. The record suggests
the opposite. Certainly, many Independents worked hard to keep their
supplies and grower commitments in line with their sales." Read
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