John Swendrowski calls for dissolution of Cranberry

On the Forum

John Swendrowski calls for dissolution of Cranberry Marketing Committee

John Swendrowski is the CEO of Northland Cranberries

2/27/02 Two years ago this industry realized that we had a "leak in the dike". We realized that if we did not use the marketing order to fix the "leak" many growers would go out of business. Over the last two years we implemented a marketing order that "patched the leak" and slowed down the problem. We did not yet "fix the leak" with our prior actions. We had the chance to fix our problem this year and failed to act. Instead under the direction of Ocean Spray management we have been told to fix the leak in our dike by PRAYING THAT IT WILL NOT RAIN.

It appears that the real CMC meeting took place in Orlando when a reported 40 growers gathered with OS management to determine that PRAYING FOR NO RAIN was the best solution to the industry oversupply.

The CMC is useless and should be dissolved. The OS block would not even consider retaining outside unbiased consultants. If nothing else the CMC should simply give Ocean Spray management one seat with four votes and save the expenses associated with flying 8 OS members and alternates around the country to meetings. It is an absolute waste of the growers money to pay the expenses of eight NON-ELECTED members and alternates to attend these meetings.
Wisconsin is going to see an early spring and budding has been reported as excellent. Reports from Canada are similar. Many new acres are three years older than 1999. We have the potential for a crop that could exceed 1999 by a significant margin. If you remove the government purchases and the two years sauce sales from 2001 we have not significantly increased sales. Even Ocean Spray NEW management team sold less fruit in 2001 than 2000. All the basic elements are in place for us to place ourselves right back into $10 fruit.

We better hope that God will listen to our prayers for no rain or the dike will break wide open and the industry will be destroyed. We have now set the tone for the future. Ocean Spray's management has now officially declared that the only solution acceptable to them is a policy that will force some growers out of business. It is no longer speculation that we are in a Last Man Standing game. It is reality. I think that some OS growers with large acreage may be surprised to find that if their properties suffer from hail or heavy rain during blossom and they do not grow a great crop they may be the real victims rather than the survivors. The new enemy in this game is your neighbor. You must outlast your neighbor because someone must go out of business in this game if we are going to solve the problem of oversupply this way. News of individual crop failures will now be considered good news by growers playing survivor. We have created a situation where we all need the "other guy" to fail for us to succeed. If you think things are ugly now just wait. Do you pass water on to another grower to help him out? Why let him fail.
Do you support efforts of your grower associations that do not impact your property? Why let them get regulated out of business.

Despite all the differences between growers based on handler affiliations we have always been able to find a way to work together on industry issues. The game has changed and we now need the other guy to fail so we can succeed. It will get real ugly real quick unless IT DOES NOT RAIN.

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws