MILWAUKEE – Northland Cranberries Inc. has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Ocean Spray, alleging the cooperative has monopolized the cranberry products industry to the detriment of its competitors and consumers.

Ocean Spray said Monday it competes fairly and would defend itself in court.

The lawsuit accuses Ocean Spray and its members of fixing prices, pooling profits, restricting output and boycotting certain customers, including rival independent processors like Northland.

The lawsuit says Ocean Spray’s arrangement with foreign growers helps to tie up cranberry production and sales of cranberry concentrate.

“Through their current structure, we believe they are inappropriately controlling and manipulating cranberry supplies,” said Kenneth Iwinski, Northland’s vice president-legal.

The lawsuit seeks monetary damages in an amount to be determined at a trial and an injunction stopping what Northland says is Ocean Spray’s anti-competitive and exclusionary conduct.

Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.-based Northland filed the lawsuit late Friday in federal court in Washington, D.C.

Clermont Inc. of Duxbury, Mass., joined Northland in the lawsuit. Clermont was the second-largest cranberry processor in the United States until it left the business in 1999. The company blamed Ocean Spray.

“We compete fairly in the marketplace,” said Ocean Spray spokesman Chris Phillips, who had not yet seen the lawsuit Monday. “Ocean Spray and everyone in the cranberry industry have struggled through some difficult years, and we’ve been subjected to the same market forces as our competitors.”

Cranberry prices hit about $60 per barrel in the mid-1990s but fell to under $12 before picking up lately to the $20- to $30-range. That’s about the level where most growers say they break even.

A year ago, Northland avoided bankruptcy by restructuring its debt, giving an investment group majority control of the company. Northland blamed Ocean Spray for its need to restructure, according to the lawsuit.

Northland credited the restructuring for helping it rebound from a loss of $74.5 million in fiscal 2001. Earlier this month, the company reported profits of $53.8 million for fiscal 2002.

Lakeville, Mass.-based Ocean Spray, which is owned by its 900 growers, had sales of just over $1 billion in fiscal 2002. Most of its cranberry growers are in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Wisconsin.

Northland, maker of Northland and Seneca brand fruit juice products, reported revenue of $101.5 million in fiscal 2002.