While Maine cranberry shipments are not considered to be a major player among states that have cranberries, this season it did produce an estimated 2 million pounds of fruit.
Although this year’s cranberry harvest was good, prices were unusually low, making for a “depressing” market, according to a cranberry specialist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. “The price was … horrendous for water-harvested berries,” said Charles Armstrong, of the extension.
About 84 percent of all cranberries in Maine are wet harvested, which involves flooding the bog and collecting the ripe berries when they float to the surface. According to Armstrong, the “break-even point” for wet harvesting requires getting about 35 to 40 cents per pound for the berries. For the 2015 season, however, the price dipped to between 12 and 20 cents a pound. In contrast, at $1.50 to $2.50 per pound, prices were good for dry harvested berries, which are picked by hand or raked mechanically.
But only about 16 percent of Maine’s crop is dry harvested because the market for fresh cranberries it is relatively small compared to the market for processed cranberries, which are wet harvested for making juice and cranberry sauce.
Some growers cut their losses and did not harvest this year because of the low prices. About five of the approximately 30 cranberry growers in Maine declined to harvest a total of about 25 acres. The biggest costs in cranberry farming are associated with trucking and processing the fruit . Fuel and manpower are other costs avoided by not harvesting.