Sending fewer crops to market helping cranberry growers

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin cranberry growers say demand for the fruit is improving after a voluntary move to withhold part of the 2018 crop.

Wisconsin Public Radio reports that the latest National Agricultural Statistics Service shows that Wisconsin produced 5.55 million barrels of cranberries last year. That's a 3 percent increase from 2017, when growers saw a slight production decline due to a late spring frost.

The figures don't include the 25 percent of production withheld from the market in 2018, thanks to a federal marketing order meant to reduce oversupply and encourage higher prices.

Tom Lochner, executive director of the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association, says the effort has helped. He says growers know it's part of a longer term effort to boost prices and they are trending in the right direction.

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