By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

LANSING, Mich. — A new state law should make it easier for would-be cranberry growers to get started in the business.

The new law, which went through the state legislature as Senate Bill 785, was signed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm Oct. 15. Two features of the legislation are especially important, according to Eric Hanson, a spokesman for the Michigan Cranberry Council.

One, the law waives the pre-application fee of $1,000 for a first site evaluation by an expert from the state; and two, it requires state officials to identify 2,500 acres of land that would be suitable for cranberry production.

According to a state House Fiscal Agency analysis, the Michigan Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Commission is required to identify the suitable land, make a map of it and make it publicly available. Once it identifies 2,000 acres of such land, it’s required to try and identify 2,500 more acres.

It directs the Agriculture Commission to take a number of other steps that will encourage the growth of a cranberry industry in the state. It similarly directs the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality: for example, the agency is required to streamline its permitting process to allow land uses that are necessary for growing cranberries.

Currently there are 270 acres of land in Michigan used for cranberry production, with only a handful of growers, but that may change soon.

“Over the last year there’s been quite a bit of interest in cranberries because the price has become more profitable,” Hanson said. “It’s become a pretty popular juice or ingredient in juices. There’s a lot of cranberry juice, or juices that contain cranberries.”

Most of the total demand for cranberries is for use in juices, Hanson said. Because of the greater demand for these products, Ocean Spray, a major cranberry cooperative whose product line includes cranberry juice, saw its gross sales increase this year by about 4.5 percent. Its domestic beverage sales growth this year is up 8.5 percent, according to a spokeswoman for the company.
Ocean Spray, however, doesn’t have any immediate plans to expand its operations into Michigan.

Most cranberries in the United States are grown in Wisconsin and Massachusetts, but there have been restrictions in Massachusetts on how much land can be used for that purpose. Cranberries require very specific conditions in the soil if they are going to thrive.
“What they require is exact measurement of water in the soil,” Hanson said. “Wetlands (are) the best place to do that.”

Hanson said pictures depicting the harvest of cranberries can be misleading since cranberries require variable soil conditions. In the winter the plant, which is part of the heath family, needs to be completely covered by ice to protect it. Water has to be kept down during the summer, however, when the plant is growing, except for a brief period of flooding.

The most common way to harvest cranberries is referred to as a wet harvest: The field is flooded so the berries float underwater. Then the plants are beat with a beater machine that shakes the berries loose from the stems.