Cooperatives across Clusters – Lessons from the Cranberry Industry Hira Gottlieb

Cooperatives Across ClustersLessons from the Cranberry Industry\nAuthor(s): Anil Hira, Paul Gottlieb, Neil Reid, Stephan Goetz, Elizabeth Dobis\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Oregon State University, United States\nImprint: Oregon State University\nISBN-13: 9781962645010, 978-1962645010\nSynopsis\nMost agricultural production is of commodity or undifferentiated products. Producers suffer from a roller-coaster ride of price swings, over- or under-production, weather and pest threats, and the inability of family famers to capture anything beyond a small percentage of the final price. Cooperatives Across Clusters provides lessons from the cranberry industry, a commodity product organized mostly into family farms in seven different clusters around North America. The industry is remarkable in that it's substantially organized around one large cooperative, Ocean Spray. The authors examine how the cooperative came to be, the challenges of coordination and industry leadership across the dive.