As the nation’s cranberry growers continue to struggle financially despite a huge U.S. government purchase of the tart fruit announced last month, the Wisconsin cranberry industry is set up to survive the economic downturn and increase its market dominance, an industry expert said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is spending $55 million to buy 68 million pounds of cranberries — about 8 percent of the 2014 harvest — to lessen the impact of a surplus that has gashed the bottom lines of growers, handlers and other businesses in the cranberry industry, Secretary Tom Vilsack said last month.
That was big news for the Wisconsin cranberry industry, which produces more than 60 percent of the U.S. harvest, provides 4,000 jobs and is worth just shy of $1 billion to the state economy each year, according to a report completed this year by the University of California, Davis.
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