January, ipso 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page 35 



Solving Fruit Growers' Problems 



Continued from page 6. 



through the purchase of orchard sup- 

 phes and in production activities of 

 various kinds, such as the use of trac- 

 tors, in pruning, fumigation and har- 

 vesting. It should reduce the cost of 

 packing by the purchase of packing 

 house supplies and by cooperative pack- 

 ing; it should reduce the cost of distri- 

 bution to the wholesale trade, and by 

 even distribution and national adver- 

 tising it should help place the wholesale 

 and retail distribution of fruit on a 

 merchandising rather than a specula- 

 tive basis, thereby reducing the distri- 

 buting costs of the trade to the con- 

 sumer. These are public relationships 

 that should be inherent in the legal 

 right of producers to organize. They 

 are responsibilities which no coopera- 

 tive organization can safely avoid." 



Details of the Organization. 



The California Fruit Growers' Ex- 

 change is a non-capital, non-profit asso- 

 ciation of 11,000 growers of citrus fruits 

 who provide the facilities through which 

 their fruit may be sold at cost to the 

 wholesale trade. There are 196 associa- 

 tions of growers in the Exchange, rep- 

 resenting three-fourths of the citrus 

 fruit of the state. An association builds 

 a packing house, harvests the fruit of 

 its members, assembles it in the packing 

 house and there grades and packs it in 

 accordance with the rules of the Ex- 

 change. These associations are financed 

 by the growers and are operated exclu- 

 sively for them. They are managed by 

 a board of directors through a salaried 

 manager. The cost of the packing 

 houses varies from $20,000 to $250,000 

 or more. 



The associations of a community 

 federate into a non-profit district ex- 

 change, with a director from each. The 

 district exchange acts as a clearing 

 house between the associations and the 

 California Fruit Growers' Exchange in 

 handling the marketing problems of the 

 associations. There are twenty of these 

 district exchanges. Its business is han- 

 dled through a manager. The California 

 Fruit Growers' Exchange is formed by 

 the district exchanges, with a director 

 representing each district exchange. 



The Exchange furnishes the facilities 

 through which the fruit of the growers 

 is sold on a delivered basis except in a 

 few pocket markets. 



In 1919 the Exchange growers sold 

 $75,000,000 worth of citrus fruits to the 

 wholesale trade, which returned $55,- 

 000,000 to California. The cost of the 

 Exchange, including the district ex- 

 change sales service, was 5.2 cents per 

 box, or 1.04 per cent of the delivered 

 value. In addition, there was invested 

 in national advertising and trade promo- 

 tion $500,000, making a total sales and 

 advertising expense of 1.62 per cent of 

 the delivered value of the fruit. Due 

 to the increased volume of business 

 handled, the Exchange selling cost, in- 

 cluding advertising, was lower in 1919 

 than ten years ago. 



During the last sixteen years there 

 has been returned to California through 

 the Exchange $317,000,00. The losses 

 from all causes during this time in deal- 

 ing with 3,000 or more wholesale mer- 

 chants have been approximately $8,000, 

 or Yioo of 1 per cent of the f.o.b. returns. 



The Fruit Growers' Supply Company. 

 The Fruit Growers' Supply Company, 

 which handles the purchases of orchard 

 and packing house supplies for the Ex- 

 change growers, owns 65,000 acres of 

 timber lands and operates mills and 

 factories for lumber and box making. 

 It has an authorized capital stock of 

 $1,500,000, which it is increasing to 

 $4,000,000, owned and contributed ex- 

 clusively by the members. In 1919 the 

 Fruit Growers' Supply Company trans- 

 acted a business of $6,200,000 in pack- 

 ing house and orchard supplies at an 

 operating cost of $1.10 per $100.00 of 

 value on purchases, and after paying 6 

 per cent on the capital invested, re- 

 funded $525,000 to its members, in pro- 

 portion to the purchases of each. 



WANTED 



to rent or lease, an improved orchard farm 

 by party having both practical experience 

 and technical training. Best of references 

 furnished. 



Address REM, Care of Better Fruit 



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