US Government Faced With 1.6 Billion Pounds Of Cranberry Surplus

The United States is currently "bogged down with too many cranberries," reports The Takeaway in a genius headline that deserves to be noticed — but I digress.

The federal government is currently dealing with a cranberry surplus, from unsold fruit from 2013 to this year's overwhelming crop, totaling 16 million barrels, or 1.6 billion pounds of cranberries.

In order to deal what is nearly a 100-percent surplus, the USDA has recently announced efforts to distribute the excess to food banks and school around the country. The organization will buy approximately 680,000 barrels of cranberries "in the form of juice, sauce, and dried berries" for distribution, reports The Associated Press.

That will total approximately $55 million in cranberries, in addition to the $32 million the agency had planned to spend.

Farmers belonging to the Ocean Spray cooperative will receive an estimated 45 cents per pound as the cranberries are sold, while independent growers are expected to make between 10 and 15 cents per pound for fruit sold for processed products.