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Growers encouraged about cranberry export potential

The leader of a Wisconsin growers group says the outlook for U.S. cranberry exports is better this year.

Tom Lochner is the Executive Director for the Wisconsin Cranberry Growers Association. He tells Brownfield, “We’re exporting about 35% of the crop now, or more, and we’ve gone through tariffs, we’ve gone through COVID which impacted those overseas sales but those markets are starting to come back.”

Lochner says the recent elimination of tariffs and improved market access make cranberries from the U.S. more attractive to foreign buyers. “The EU is our largest market, so that’s very important to us that we can go in now and compete with the Canadian producers who go in duty-free because they have free trade agreements with the EU, but essentially, the U.S. cranberry products now go in without any duties on them as well which makes us much more competitive.”

Wisconsin produces more than 63 percent of the nation’s supply and more than 50 percent of the world’s supply of cranberries.