Why We Need Cranberry Innovation

During The Great Cranberry Scare of 1959, no one bought fresh cranberries. As a result, Ocean Spray decided it had to depend less on just one product. It had to do some cranberry innovation.

Cranberry Innovation

Our story starts in 1930 when several cranberry farmers formed Ocean Spray. Selling fresh cranberries and jellied cranberry sauce in a can, they fared well for decades. But then, after 1959 when some cranberry batches were contaminated with herbicide, the growers realized they could not depend on Thanksgiving for most of their sales.

So, they invented Cran-Apple Juice during the 1960s, packaged some of it in little juice boxes two decades later, and now we have a zero-sugar version (and a slew of cran- flavors). Maybe though, most memorably, they developed the Craisin.

As for the future, we can look forward to chocolate dipped Craisins through Ocean Spray’s partnership with Hershey and the Vodka Cranberry that they will produce with Absolut.

We also can watch an Ocean Spray Cran-Rasperry TikToc that went viral in 2020:

Our Bottom Line: The Cooperative

Now almost a century later, and after a failed buyout attempt from Pepsi in 2004, Ocean Spray is the world’s largest cranberry producer.  However, like SunMaid (raisins), Sunkist (oranges), and Fonterra (dairy products), its business model is the cooperative.

Whereas the individual proprietorship, the partnership, and the corporation are the three basic forms of business ownership, the cooperative can combine some of the characteristics of all three. Fundamentally though, for Ocean Spray, it means that its 700+ North American cranberry growers are shareholder owners of the corporation. And yes, according to a 1922 law, sellers, legally cooperating, do not violate the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act.

But for us, as economists, we can conclude by remembering that even for the cranberry, our market system depends on innovation.

My sources and more: Because of The Journal’s podcast on the cranberry, yesterday’s walk was quite pleasant. Then, for more on cooperatives, these websites, here and here, take us far beyond farming. And finally, please take a look at our Cranberry Blog. (We should note that Nantucket had to cut back  its cranberry production.)