Today, we have been informed by the Secretary of Agriculture that it will be illegal for Decas Cranberry Company to grow more than 2/3 of its average crop and illegal for our contracted growers to deliver more than 2/3 of their average crop to Decas, even though we carry no surplus and need this fruit to service our existing customers and to maintain our market share.

The Decas Cranberry Company has invested over $10,000,000 since 1996 to insure the sale of the cranberries that our contracted growers deliver to us, and to generate additional value that can be shared with our growers. We have built state-of-the-art cranberry cleaning facilities, a manufacturing capability for the production of sweetened dried cranberries, and a facility for the production of cranberry concentrate. All of our investment is in Massachusetts.

Since 1996, Decas has become a major cranberry ingredient company marketing its various cranberry products to major brands such as Mariani, Veryfine, Dole, Sunsweet, Del Monte, Pepsi-Cola, and Tropicana. We have also introduced its Massachusetts-manufactured products into about a dozen countries, with major initiatives in Japan, the United Kingdom and Germany.

Many of the companies we supply directly compete with Ocean Spray at the retail level.

We will now be unable to meet all of our orders, run our manufacturing facilities at full production, and expand our sales. In order to maintain our business, we are forced to either replace our growers’ regulated berries with Ocean Spray surplus berries at whatever price Ocean Spray chooses to impose on us, or to source berries outside of the US. The tragedy of this decision is that at the same time it strangles a once dominant Massachusetts industry, it will increase demand for foreign fruit. It must be noted that of all the Massachusetts growers who commented on the proposed regulation to the Secretary of Agriculture, the clear majority were opposed to a regulation of any size.

This regulation was forced upon us by Ocean Spray, who purposely created a surplus and then used their political power to influence the USDA to impose these restrictions upon our industry. This action will give Ocean Spray an unfair advantage over their competition, and will have a disproportionately severe impact on Massachusetts cranberry growers. Of the six major handlers, Decas is the only company that sources all of its berries from the US, and acquires over 85% of these berries from Massachusetts growers who did not contribute to the surplus. The surplus was generated mostly from Ocean Spray expansion in Wisconsin and Canada.

I am extremely disappointed in the administration for deciding to impose a regulation that clearly undermines the free marketplace and rewards a multi-national company that created the problem. I am equally disappointed that those in our congressional delegation who could have made a difference on this chose not to get involved.

Decas will now consider its remaining legal options and will do whatever is necessary to protect its growers and its own interests, and will announce shortly what further action we may pursue.

In the meantime, we will prepare to make the necessary adjustments to conform to the new regulations, which unfortunately will include cutting back on our export programs. Meanwhile, we will seek new sources of supply in order to rebuild our program for the future.

Decas Cranberry Products is owned and operated by the Decas Family, who have been growing and marketing cranberries in Massachusetts for nearly seventy years. Decas is the largest and longest operating independent cranberry ingredient company in the United States. Decas is contracted with 180 Massachusetts growers, 2 Wisconsin growers, and 3 Oregon growers.

Submitted by

John C. Decas

President and CEO

Decas Cranberry Company

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