• The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, November 21, 2007 12:47 PM

Thanks to new product innovations and efforts to promote the health benefits of the fruit by industry leader Ocean Spray and others, cranberries no longer are relegated to a Thanksgiving side dish. But for the first time in years, cranberry crops are expected to drop this fall, meaning higher prices for everything from cranberry craisins to the traditional Thanksgiving sauce.

Cranberries prefer cold winters and plenty of rain. Unusually warm winter and a summer drought in many parts of the U.S. and Canada hurt the crop now being harvested. Canned sauce, bottled juice and dried cranberry snacks will be available, but prices are expected to rise. As for fresh cranberries, "we won't have any left for Christmas," predicts Robert Keane, a spokesman for Stop & Shop.

Cranberries can now be found in more than 2,000 products from muffin mix to soap. U.S. unit sales of dried cranberries--which are used to make snacks and as ingredients in other foods--rose nearly 20% in 2006, according to Information Resources Inc.

Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal »