Commercially, the United States grows the most cranberries per year. Canada is in second place. Which country is third?

Historically, cranberries have been cultivated in North America since before any of the European colonies was established. Their value as food and medicine are long established. In America, they are sold raw, in juice blends, jellied, and as sweetened and dried competitors to raisins. The Ocean Spray cooperative is the best-known US producer. Annually, 405,770 tons are grown in the States.

In Canada, annual tonnage is a bit more than quarter of the US yield, at 122,084 tons. The largest cranberry cultivator in Ontario, Upper Canada Cranberries, is partially and perhaps largely responsible for perhaps irrevocably altering the environment with its cranberry fields changing swampland to farmland.

A mere 6,500 annual tons puts Belarus in third spot on the global Top Ten List of cranberry-producing nations. While wetlands are not absolutely necessary for cranberry cultivation, the plants need watering that many might consider extreme. Belarus’s marshlands are ideal. Spain, with 100 tons, lands in 10th place. Latvia occupies fifth, with 1,500 tons. China does not fall in the top ten.