The following is a corrected version of a PBN story that ran with several inaccuracies a couple of weeks ago.
Massachusetts cranberry farmers could see tougher competition from counterparts
in Wisconsin due to a new breed of fruit known as HyRed.
The variant, created by the University of Wisconsin in Madison, produces cranberries that ripen two weeks earlier than traditional cranberries, thus significantly bettering the chance of developing the deep red tone at harvest time. Winter arrives earlier in the Midwestern state, leading farmers to pick underdeveloped cranberries that are white before they are ruined by the cold.
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A new “superberry” could be a concern in this region, said Carolyn DeMoranville, director of the University of Massachusetts Cranberry Station in Wareham, Mass.
“But, it’s likely to be a long-term issue,” she said. “It will take a while – at least five years – for farms to get up and running with HyRed.”
HyRed is receiving much attention in the industry because it is the first new breed of cranberry plant to be produced since the 1930s.
Massachusetts, where cranberry plants are a native species, has a longer growing season that allows cranberries to develop the proper amount of the anthocyanin, the acidic compound that gives the fruit its signature deep red complexion; this gives growers in the Bay State an advantage. Cranberries with a deeper color are the first to be purchased and if demand is low, Massachusetts growers are likely to do better.
“But, if everyone is universally producing good color, handlers will stop paying extra,” DeMoranville said. “That could bring the price down for all the growers.”
Brent McCown, a professor of horticulture at the University of Wisconsin and part of the research team that created the HyRed, said this possibility may be the case but it is not a concern to farmers there.
“If growers here do not produce good color, the value of their crop will be devalued,” he said. “However, efficiencies could be created at the processor end” in that they do not have to shop around for the right color fruit. “The savings could be passed down to the grower.” McCown created the HyRed along with Eric Zeldin. Their discovery was patented by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) the patenting and licensing organization for the university.
McCown said HyRed provides a solution to the color issue in Wisconsin, a significant problem for the state that grows more than 50 percent of the country’s cranberry output.
Planting HyRed would cost about $10,000 per acre, most if it to pay for a university license. In fact, according to Andrew Cohn, of WARF, while it would cost, on average, $10,000 per acre to renovate from an older variety to a new variety such as HyRed, the royalty on a license to HyRed is $60 per acre for Wisconsin growers which over the remaining 17-year life of the patent amounts to $1,020 or about 10 per cent of the start up cost. P>
The last super breed of cranberry plants – known as Stevens and created through the United States Department of Agriculture in the 1930s and distributed 20 years later – took until the 1990s before it made an impact on the market.
The Stevens variety, which has berries that are one-third larger than its older cousins, allowed the cranberry industry to flourish in Wisconsin.
The HyRed was developed through crossbreeding the Stevens and another cranberry variant known as the Ben Lean, which gets its color earlier in the growing season.
Another breeding program is under way at Rutgers University in New Jersey to develop a high-yield breed of cranberry.
“There’s been little crossbreeding as compared to other agricultural products produce like corn,” McCown said. “But when it does happen, the dominance in a farming trade can shift geographical boundaries, like it has in the cranberry industry.”
Lakeville, Mass.-based Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc. gave undisclosed financial help to the HyRed project, according to Rod Serres, a senior research scientist at the company.
Although the main goal of the project was to help Wisconsin growers, the grower-owned company did want to test HyRed elsewhere.
The Cranberry Growers Service Inc. in Wareham, Mass., has one-quarter acre of HyRed growing there and Serres says the results have been good.
“The berries are larger than those from the ‘early black’ (breed that is popular in Massachusetts),” he said. “If you line up the two, the HyRed should live up to its promise of better yields.”
The university does not have a licensing agreements for HyRed. WARF plans to license this variety on a non-exclusive basis to growers all over the world, said Cohn.
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John C. Decas, president and CEO of Wareham, processor Decas Cranberry Sales Co. and operator of 400 acres of bogs, said he’s been following the HyRed story but has put the issue on the back burner.
“The more important situation in Massachusetts is the large number of older bogs and older varieties of berries,” Decas said. “Some bogs are not properly graded and this can lead to water-use issues. The No. 1 issue here is making bogs more cost-effective and not the HyRed situation.”
