BANDON - The South Coast's annual cranberry harvest is nearly complete, but growers expect the harvest to come in below the National Agricultural Statistics Service 2006 crop forecast.

“We are way down, in fact most of the other states are down, too. In Coos and Curry counties, we really had no summer,” said Bandon resident Carol Russell, Oregon's cranberry legislative representative.

Russell said both Coos and Curry counties are producing approximately 10 percent fewer berries from last year's harvest. But what cranberry growers might have lost due to the unfavorable summer weather conditions, they might recoup in price. Demand should outstrip supply.

“Every time there's a nationwide shortage, on top of the low yield harvested last year, it makes the price better,” she said.

That means growers may see prices fluctuate from $45 to $52 a barrel, with a barrel weighing 100 pounds.

There are approximately 175 growers in Coos and Curry counties, with more than 2,500 acres growing berries. In all, the counties account for 99 percent of Oregon's crop, which represents 11 percent of the nation's total cranberry harvest.

The initial cranberry crop forecast was estimated at 6.64 million barrels, or a 6-percent increase from 2005. The Oregon crop was forecast at 485,000 barrels, but with 90 percent of the harvest completed, Russell estimated the actual figure will be about 400,000 barrels. That's down from 440,000 in 2005.

In addition to higher prices, growers now have more options for marketing berries. Ocean Spray once was the dominate receiving station in the area, but now there are more than six stations that growers can deliver to, according to the Oregon cranberry network.

It's not always an easy business. Russell and other cranberry growers still are talking about the market crash in 1995. Prices plummeted from a high of $65 a barrel over the following three years to $11 a barrel, well below the $35 a barrel needed to break even.

“Various berry companies understated their inventory, which caused the price to drop dramatically. That caused people to stop working their bogs,” said Wayne Foster, who's worked bogs at his Quail Farms for 30 years.

Some bog owners lost their farms. Many still are trying to recover.

Oregon's berries are highly prized for their deep red color. They are choice for juice-making and are mixed with the lighter berries produced in other states. Coos and Curry counties have produced cranberries since the late 19th century, when Charles Dexter McFarlin came to Coos County from Massachusetts and planted the first cranberry vine.

A lot in the industry has changed since then, and Foster is one who has embraced those changes. Science and genetics are changing the yield, and producing vines with better berries.

“With the future of genetics, I think the vines will have the capability to produce up to 700 barrels per acre, if the vines are properly taken care of,” he said.

But, Foster added, it may take years for farmers to see genetically altered berries come to fruition.

“It will be a good thing from a production standpoint,” he said. “Those growers who don't embrace it will be left behind.”