Last week Wednesday, USDA announced their forecast for the upcoming harvest across America. Sitting atop the cranberry harvest, is Wisconsin with a projected 5.3 million barrels of Cranberries.
If the projections stays true, this would make Wisconsin the largest cranberry producer in the country by around 3.5 million barrels of cranberries. Wisconsin accounts for over 65% of the country’s cranberry production, the next closest state is Massachusetts coming in at around 1.75 million cranberries. The overall projected harvest for the country is just over 8 million Cranberries.
This harvest marks the 31st year in a row that Wisconsin has been the top cranberry harvester in the U.S. This year’s projection is about 190,000 barrels under last year’s total harvest, the margin of error still makes the projection within the range of last year’s harvest. (RELATED: Wisconsin Farmers Remain Bullish About Trump Tariffs Despite Momentary Setbacks)
Officially becoming the state fruit in 2004, the cranberry is the state’s largest fruit crop. In both harvest and economic value, Wisconsin cranberries are grown on over 25,000 acres of cranberry bogs across the state. The crop is also one of the largest harvested in the state int terms of total quantity.
“Approximately five percent of this year’s crop will be sold as fresh fruit. The remaining cranberries will be frozen and stored for longer-term sales as frozen berries, dried cranberries, juices, sauces and more.
Wisconsin’s cranberry harvest typically begins in late September and runs through October,” says The Midwest Farm Report. (RELATED: Wisconsin Joins Bipartisan Efforts to Restrict Chinese Ownership of Farmland)
