N.L. plants $3M into cranberries

The Newfoundland and Labrador government is putting $3 million behind a little red berry it hopes will boost the province's agriculture industry.

Finance Minister Tom Marshall announced the money for the province's ripening cranberry industry in Tuesday's budget, and farmers are pleased.

Paul Lomond, who owns a cranberry farm in the Bay St. George area on Newfoundland's west coast, plans to double the size of his farm to three hectares, he said, andthe government money will help the blooming industry.

"It will allow us to expand even further," Lomond said. "I don't know where we'll go with it, but you could take growers to 25, 40 or 50 acres. It'll put Newfoundland on the map as a cranberry producer, I think, over the next five to 10 years."

Lomond said bigger cranberry farms will mean more jobs in rural areas of the province.

Merv Wiseman, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Agriculture, said the province's investmentwill givethe cranberry business a necessary push.

"It's money that gets it going and actually, it's a sense of direction and a commitment that the province has made that can drive the entire process," Wiseman said. "Without it, it would probably go nowhere. With it, it goes many places."

The province's cranberry industry was born in 2002, as part of a government alternative crops initiative. The five cranberry farms in Newfoundland currently send the bulk of their crop to markets in Europe.