Cooperative Marketing; Its Advantages as Exemplified in the California Fruit Growers Exchange (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1917. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XII RELATION OF EXCHANGE SYSTEM TO GENERAL MARKETING PROBLEM The cooperative activities of the California citrus growers are not vitally important, but the significance of their activities is of far reaching importance. It has been with the purpose of estimating the relation of the California system to the broad problems of food distribution that the earlier chapters have been written. If the system of cooperation worked out by the citrus growers has no wider application than to the citrus industry, it is little more than an industrial curiosity. From the detailed attention that has been devoted to the structure of the California Fruit Growers Exchange it might be inferred that no other systems of cooperation are in vogue among the citrus growers of California. Such a conclusion would be erroneous. Coit classifies the marketing arrangements as follows:1 Sales through the California Fruit Growers Exchange 62percent. Independent association sales 20" Sales by independent growers who ship to market 5" Miscellaneous sales 13" The procedure for the 20 per cent. marketed by the independent cooperative associations is roughly analogous to that described in connection with the exchange system, with the exception that far less elaborate and comprehensive machinery is employed. Also these associations often con 1 Coit: "Citrus Fruits," p. 344. sign to brokers, a thing that the exchange never does. However, it is almost accurate to say with Mr. Powell that "to be as near like the exchange system as possible is the leading argumentative asset of every important independent association that seeks to build up a larger membership in the citrus industry." There are a few growers with a large acreage who have packing houses of their own, and are not merely members...