I was in the shop this morning, grabbing a couple of pastries for breakfast, when I noticed an Ocean Spray Cranberry Sauce section on one of the shelves. I’d not seen this before, although I knew Ocean Spray from their range of juices.
It got me wondering about what percentage of cranberry production worldwide goes into Ocean Spray products. It occurred to me that cranberries were as close to a one-corporation natural food as I could think of. Other fruits/vegetables aren’t dominated by one manufacturer to the extent that Ocean Spray does in cranberries, to my knowledge.
A little bit of googling later, and it turns out that their share actually dropped from when the company was founded to the present day. It stood at 95% in 1930, but by 2000 had fallen to 65%. My source [PDF] is a presentation by Coriolis Research, with the relevant graph on page 44.
I’m actually slightly shocked. I thought it had gone the other way, becoming an all-encompassing cranberry superpower. Reading through the presentation, it seems that the price guaranteed by Ocean Spray to its suppliers caused other farmers to switch to growing cranberries, saturating the market and deflating prices overall.
The things you know…
