Happy Thanksgiving! This episode was originally published in November 2023. Ocean Spray’s farmers are responsible for 65% of the world’s cranberries. It’s not a publicly traded company. It’s not a traditional private company, either. It’s a cooperative founded nearly a century ago and owned by roughly 700 families. WSJ’s Ben Cohen tells the story of how the cranberry got into the can and how the company is planning for a future beyond your Thanksgiving table. Further Reading: -These People Are Responsible for the Cranberry Sauce You Love to Hate Further Listening: -Are Rotisserie Chickens 'Inflation-Proof'? -The Twinkie: From Bankruptcy to Billions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
The classic Thanksgiving combination, turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. The jammy side dish will be on our plates today more than any other time of the year. And to shine a spotlight on the cranberries that make up this Thanksgiving staple, we're bringing back an episode we made last year. It's about the biggest cranberry company in the world, Ocean Spray. Enjoy, and happy Thanksgiving.
Our colleague Ben Cohen won't stop talking about cranberries. I was so fascinated by Big Cranberry. Like everything I learned about cranberries, I was just like going around to everyone last week being like, did you know this about cranberries? Yeah, you sound like you're becoming a cranberry stan. Do you know what the top five selling cranberry products in 2022 were?
I do not. Please enlighten me. Okay. Number one. I'm not going to do it in order, actually, because I want to save the best for last. 64-ounce cranberry juice cocktail. Okay? 100% cranberry juice is also on the list. Okay. 64-ounce cranberry grape juice. Cranberry grape is a fan favorite. I would not have guessed that.
three liters cranberry juice cocktail. So the three liters and the 64 ounce both make it on the list. And then also on the list, 14 ounce jellied cranberry sauce, that good old classic. And this week is huge for that good old classic canned cranberry sauce.
They really do appear on the table of like every home in America during Thanksgiving. It's like, you know, this thing like pops up out of nowhere once a year and it has this place in all of our hearts and, you know, maybe some of our stomachs.
The company that invented it is Ocean Spray. It does $2 billion in cranberry sales a year and it produces 65% of the cranberries in the world. The ingredients to its success include 700 families, a major berry panic, and some very hip grandmas. Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza.
Coming up on the show, the company behind your can of cranberry sauce.
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Sean Cutts is a cranberry farmer in the Pine Barrens of Southern New Jersey. He worked there for his father when he was younger, and now he works with his own kids. Do you have a favorite time, like, of the season?
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