Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the genus Vaccinium subgenus Oxycoccus, or in some treatments, in the distinct genus Oxycoccus. They are found in acidic bogs throughout the cooler parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Cranberries are low, creeping shrubs or vines up to 2 m long and 5 to 20 cm in height, with slender, wiry stems, not thickly woody, and small evergreen leaves. The flowers are dark pink, with very distinct refluxed petals, leaving the style and stamens fully exposed and pointing forward. Domestic honeybees pollinate them. The fruit is a false berry that is superior to the leaves of the plant; it is originally white, but turns a deep red when fully ripe. It is edible, with an acidic taste that can overwhelm its sweetness.
Cranberry sales have traditionally been associated with the United States holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Until the Thirties more harvest took place sold fresh. The cranberry farmers have a long history of joint marketing. Since 1904, John Gaynor, a farmer of Wisconsin, and A.U. Chaney, a fruit broker from Des Moines, Iowa, organized Wisconsin growers into a cooperative called the Wisconsin Cranberry Sales Company to receive a uniform price from buyers. Farmers in New Jersey and Massachusetts were also organized in co-operatives, creating the national exchange of fruit, which launched the fruit on the market under the mark of Eatmor. The success of cooperative marketing almost led to its failure. With consistent and high prices, area and production doubled between 1903 and 1917 and prices fell. In 1918, US$54,000 was spent on advertising, leading to US$1 million in increased sales.
With surplus cranberries and changing American households some enterprising growers began canning cranberries that were below-grade for fresh market. Competition between canners was fierce because profits were thin. The Ocean Spray cooperative was established in 1930 through a merger of three primary processing companies: Ocean Spray Preserving company, Make peace Preserving Co, and Cranberry Products Co. The new company was called Cranberry Canners, Inc and was employed the label of jet of ocean on their products. Since the new company represented more than 90% of the market, it would have been illegal made not found with the agent John Quarles an exemption for the agricultural cooperatives. In date of 2006, approximately 65% of the American industry of north belongs to the co-operative of jet of ocean. A turning point for the industry occurred on November 9, 1959 when the secretary of the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare Arthur S. Flemming announced that some of the 1959 crop was tainted with traces of the herbicide aminotriazole. The market for cranberries broke down and the farmers lost million dollars. However, alarm taught with the industry, which they could not depend completely on the market of holidays for their products and had to find the year to round markets for their fruit. They also had to atrociously pay attention about their use of the pesticides.
After the scare of aminotriazole, Ocean Spray reorganized and spent substantial sums on product development. The new products such as cranberry apple juice blends were introduced, followed by other juice blends. An order of federal commercialization that is authorized to synchronize the source and the demand was approved in 1962. The order has renewed and it has been modified slightly in subsequent years, but it has allowed one more a more stable commercialization. The market order has been invoked during six crop years: 1962 (12%), 1963 (5%), 1970 (10%), 1971 (12%), 2000 (15%), and 2001 (35%). Even though supply still slightly exceeds demand, there is little will to invoke the Federal Marketing Order out of the realization that any pullback in supply by U.S. growers would easily be filled by Canadian production.
