Locally Grown Cranberries to Feature New Insignia

A new insignia designed by the Cape Cod Cranberry Grower’s Association to distinguish cranberries grown in Massachusetts for consumers.

HYANNIS – The cranberry harvest season is underway and purchasers of the fruit will now be able to tell if it was harvested locally in Massachusetts.

The Cape Cod Cranberry Grower’s Association unveiled a new emblem earlier this month that will distinguish Commonwealth-grown cranberries from product grown elsewhere.

Brian Wick, the executive director of the Cape Cod Cranberry Grower’s Association, said the new logo is intended to help consumers identify locally grown cranberries.

“It helps to capitalize on the buy local and locavore movement and help our growers in the marketplace demonstrate that they have grown the fruit right here in Massachusetts,” Wick said.

Wick said consumers seeking to know where their food is produced is a growing trend in agriculture.

“The insignia is one way with cranberries to help demonstrate that,” he said.

Cranberries are the state’s largest cash crop and nearly a quarter of all cranberries produced in the country are grown in Massachusetts.

The insignia helps to remind residents in Massachusetts about the importance of the fruit.

“A lot of folks here in Massachusetts sometimes forget that,” Wick said. “It is a very important part of our southeastern [Mass] economy and environment and that insignia is just one more way of helping to strengthen that relationship.”

The emblem includes the outline of the state in the background with three berries superimposed in the forefront.

“It has a definite modern feel to it and I think it will help to attract some of the millennial market,” Wick said.

Wick expects that residents will begin to see the new emblem this fall.

“It will probably take some time to roll it out,” Wick said.

The emblem will primarily be on the packaging of fresh fruit.

“A lot of folks have their packaging in place for a while so when they run out of supply they get a new batch,” he said.

Wick said it was fun working on the design process for the insignia and that it took a while for the whole board to come to agreement on the final design.

“It doesn’t mean that other cranberry products that aren’t grown here in Massachusetts aren’t good, it just helps to differentiate and point out and help celebrate our local industry,” Wick said.