CRANBERRIES in WASHINGTON

I'm Bob Larson. Over the holidays, cranberry sales soar ... with many of those you buy at the store coming from right here in the Pacific Northwest ...

KIM PATTEN ... "We have a longstanding tradition of growing cranberries in here since before the turn of the century, the 1880s or so when it first started. Acre-wise, there's about 17-18-hundred acres in Southwest Washington. There's about another 3-thosuand-plus in Oregon, but it's a small percentage of the total nation-wide or world-wide cranberries being produced, but it's important locally."

Kim Patten, with the WSU Extension Office in Long Beach, says commercial production here is helped by the biggest name in cranberries ...

KIM PATTEN ... "We have probably in the state about 110-120 growers and 95 of them are part of Ocean Spray, there abouts. And there's probably 10-to-a-dozen independent growers in the state. There's three organic farms and there's probably eight independent fresh fruit farms."

Patten says the bulk of cranberries goes into processing ...with most going into the Craisin and Juice market ...

KIM PATTEN ... "We have a major Craisin facility out of Westport which brings in all the cranberries, essentially, from Canada, Washington and Oregon to be made into Craisins. And when they do that they also get the juice out of that so it's the major end-point for cranberries."

Listen tomorrow to more about Washington cranberries.