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Boston Herald

Oct. 25, 1999

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Cranberry crisis hits home

Developers eye bogs

By TIM McLAUGHLIN

When cranberries fetched $65 a barrel, real estate developers had little chance of buying precious land from growers in southeastern Massachusetts.

But the tart little berry's plummeting price has left a sweet taste in developers' mouths. They're back at the bogs,' offering cranberry growers a way out of hard times. And for the first time in a decade, the growers are listening.

"There's a hunger to use up the land," said Betty Brown, a Middleboro cranberry grower considering offers to sell small parcels. "Unfortunately, this is a time that forces people to sell their buffer zone. It's very tempting to get through the year by selling one lot."

This convergence has touched off a crisis in the small towns of Carver, Plymouth, Wareham and Middleboro. Town planners fear a sell-off of cranberry land will accelerate development and lead to stressed-out municipal se. vices and crowded classrooms.

Cranberry production has surpassed demand, sending prices into a freefall. Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc., the Lakeville cooperative owned by 920 fruit growers, warns cranberry prices could drop as low as $28 per 100-pound barrel. That's less than half of what growers received for most of the 1990s.

This season's forecast for cranberry production is a record 5.81 million barrels, up G percent from the previous two years. Massachusetts' estimated production is 2.1- million barrels, up 12 percent from 1998 but unchanged from 1997.

During the past five years, Wisconsin has increased its cranberry production by I million barrels. The dairy and cheese state has eclipsed Massachusetts to become the country's leading cranberry producer.

Tom Gelsthorpe, a Sandwich cranberry grower, said the cost of production on an average bog can run to $35 a barrel.

"We can't make ends meet on cranberry sales alone," Gelsthorpe said.

A lot sold here and there doesn't bother Ann Miller, chairwoman of Carver's planning board. It was a mammoth subdivision plan filed last year by the state's largest cranberry grower, A.D. Makepeace Co., that sent a tremor through the annual Town Meeting.

"We've always known this was a possibility,^- Miller said. "Carver is 85 percent open space, and most of it is owned by cranberry growers. The well-being of the town is resting in the hands of one industry, which is not a good thing."

Makepeace filed subdivision plans covering 10,000 acres in the towns of Carver, Wareham and Plymouth because it feared growth restriction laws would

harm the land's value. John 0. Drew, a vice president at the company, said there are no plans to build on or sell the land.

Miller isn't so sure. And she said A.D. Makepeace didn't file its plans soon enough in her town to escape the onus of building caps.

She expects the matter to end up in a courtroom.

Regardless of the cranberry market, growers control most of the open space in the region with the state's fastest residential growth, noted Jeff LeFleur, executive director of the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers Association. I "Twenty-five percent growth is expected through 2010," LeFleur said. "You can see where the pressure is."

Makepeace owns 13,000 acres in southeastern Massachusetts, and hired Sasaki Associates of

Watertown to help the company plot its course for future generations.

"As news of our subdivision plan filings have become more public, there's been an increased number of calls from builders and developers," Drew said. "We field daily inquiries about selling the property. We consistently say no. We're not interested in piecemeal real estate deals."

Drew, a great-great-grandson of the company's namesake, said Makepeace is only interested in long-term, comprehensive planning. He said company. representatives will continue to meet with regional planners.

Meanwhile, there's no quick way to increase cranberry consumption, especially in international markets. Great Britain is the largest cranberry market outside the United States, but consider one London newspaper's take on the cranberry:

, "Here's a marketing brief to make you weep: We have an agricultural product that grows only in peatbogs carpeted with sand. If you harvest the product in the most economic way, you will not be able to use it fresh. If you harvest it in the expensive, labor-intensive way and then eat it fresh, you will gag.... There is almost nothing you can do with it that doesn't taste disgusting. If you don't sweeten it with massive amounts of sugar, you can't do anything with it at all."

That sort of reception doesn't de well for cranberry towns like Carver, population 11,000. "The cranberry is a native American fruit. Most cultures have been living 2,000 years without cranberries," Drew said. "As healthy and wonderful as the cranberry is, it took a decade for operations in Great Britain to break even:"

Standard & Poor's downgraded Ocean Spray's credit rating in August, reflecting worries about the cooperative's future. Ocean Spray is looking for a new top executive while exploring mergers with companies that have major marketing clout. Speculation has centered on PepsiCo Inc. as a likely candidate to buy all or part of Ocean Spray.

Gelsthorpe said he's worried about the shifting balance of power in the food industry. Retailers hold the upper hand over food manufacturers, forcing them to consolidate to protect their interests. Gelstharpe said the voice of small cranberry growers could get lost in the shake-up.

Ocean Spray recently announced it will spend $75 million to $100 million on marketing. The investment will support the launch of the cooperative's 100 percent juice blends. Meanwhile, brand name flop Wellfleet Farms is being pulled from store shelves.

In an already crowded juice market, Ocean Spray is targeting women who are 35 and older.

Brown, who has been critical of Ocean Spray's pat marketing efforts, said she hopes the latest campaign works. At stake is the land her grandfather began cultivating in the 1930's. For now she's holding off on land offers.

"I'm assuming we'll come out of this one way or the other," Brown said. "If you ask me in December, though, I may have a different answer."