Ocean Spray Puts Growers and Growing Regions Front and Center for Cranberry Season

Ocean Spray and Oppy are putting more emphasis on where fresh cranberries come from this holiday season, introducing new packaging that identifies individual growing regions and the farmers behind the fruit.

The new bags highlight three Ocean Spray cranberry regions—the Pacific Northwest, Great Lakes and New England—and include recipes sourced from growers in those areas.

The packaging also gives greater prominence to “USA Grown” messaging and Ocean Spray’s structure as a farmer-owned cooperative representing approximately 700 family farmers.

“These new packs help bring our grower-owners closer to consumers,” said Brendan Schulke, team leader of fresh and business development at Ocean Spray.

Although Ocean Spray is one of the produce department’s most recognizable brands, Schulke said shoppers may be less familiar with the growers behind it.

The regional packaging is designed to change that while providing retailers with another way to tell the fresh cranberry story during the product’s most important selling season.

Cranberries are one of relatively few commercially important fruits native to North America, giving the category another origin story that Oppy and Ocean Spray believe can resonate with shoppers.

The regional emphasis also highlights the geographic diversity behind Ocean Spray’s supply.

For retailers, sourcing from multiple cranberry-producing regions can provide additional supply security while creating merchandising opportunities around local growers, U.S. production and seasonal recipes.

Oppy has marketed Ocean Spray fresh cranberries in the United States for more than two decades as part of a relationship between the companies that stretches back more than 50 years.

The two companies are supporting this season’s fresh program with additional retail merchandising materials.

New near-cooler displays are intended to help maintain fruit quality, while retailers can also use dump bins, recipe cards, shelf blades and QR codes connecting shoppers with seasonal recipes.

Updated digital assets are available for e-commerce, pickup and delivery programs, and retailers have access to a revised Fresh Cranberry Playbook with merchandising recommendations and seasonal category information.

The new region-focused bags are shipping now, putting the program in stores ahead of Thanksgiving and the December holidays, when fresh cranberry demand traditionally peaks.

The effort arrives as produce companies increasingly use packaging to communicate information beyond variety and brand.

Grower stories, production regions, domestic sourcing and sustainability claims have all become tools for helping shoppers make a connection with the people and places behind fresh foods.

For Ocean Spray, the new cranberry bags combine several of those ideas in one package.

Instead of simply asking shoppers to buy cranberries for a holiday recipe, the company is using the package to remind them that the berries came from a specific North American growing region and from a cooperative of family farms.