Healthy Cranberry Crop Projected This Year

State officials are projecting a healthy cranberry crop of 2.1 million barrels for the current season.

If the projection by the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources proves accurate, the crop would come in at about the same level as last's year crop. That was the third-highest crop in Massachusetts history and was worth $99 million.

Cranberries are the state's largest fruit crop and Massachusetts is the second largest cranberry-producing state in the country, behind Wisconsin. Cindy Rhodes of Edgewood Bogs in Carver said productivity on her business's 200 acres has improved after they planted new hybrid cranberry varieties in three-quarters of their bogs during the past few years. She said that's meant greater yields and more efficiency.

[Associated Press]