THE MONTlIIiY BULLETIN. 17 



CO-OPERATIVE MARKETING ASSOCIATIONS. 



Orowor.s of ollior fi-uits and iml.s liavo p:onc tlii-oush .simihii* oxpo- 

 rioiK'Os and tlironfyh the foi-niatinn of co-operative marketing as.so<'iations 

 liave obtained great re.snits. 



Every one is familiar witli the great success of the California Fruit 

 Growers' Exchange, which markets over GO per cent of the oranges pro- 

 duced in the State. Before the growers organized fruit was rotting 

 on the ground for want of a market and people were talking over- 

 production. This year the exchange shipped 24,217 cars of oranges 

 and 5,565 car.s of lemons, which returned about $19,537,850.00 to the 

 growers of this State. 



Two years ago raisins sold at 2 cents per pound, which was less than 

 the cost of production. The raisin association started at that time has, 

 in spite of a tremendous increase in production, raised the price to 

 about 4 cents paid this year. 



The almond growers have had a strong association for some time, and 

 the peach growers and olive growers have profited by the example and 

 this year have organized state-wide associations. 



The California Walnut GroM'ers' Association is also a fine example of 

 what growers can do for themselves through co-operation. This associa- 

 tion has control of about 80 per cent of the walnuts in the State, and 

 each year sets the price at which walnuts will sell. They wait until the 

 crop is almost ready to harvest before setting this price, and get very 

 accurate estimates of the crop here as well as in all other countries 

 where walnuts are raised. They take into consideration the financial 

 conditions of the country. They know what it costs to produce a walnut 

 and what it costs to sell it. Taking all these things into careful con- 

 sideration, they set a price which will give the growers a fair profit and 

 yet one that will enable them to sell the nuts promptly. 



If the dried apricot growers were as strongly organized they would 

 have still more control over the market, as apricots are not grown com- 

 mercially outside of this State. Large cpiantities of walnuts are 

 imported each year while apricots are exported. 



The producer of dried apricots is in virtually the same position as a 

 manufacturer and should be able to set a price on his product which 

 will return a profit. No manufacturer would sell his i)roduct without 

 adding a profit above the cost of production. 



WHY PRESENT DRIED APRICOT ASSOCIATIONS ARE NOT MORE 



SUCCESSFUL. 



The reason that so many dried apricot associations have failed, and 

 that the present associations are not more successful, is largely because 

 only small districts have organized and have not been strong enough to 

 stand the powerful competition of the great packing concerns in the 

 State, who have been making enormous profit out of the business and 

 have plenty of capital to exert every known means to put the small 

 co-operative dried fruit a.'-sociation out of business and keep the business 

 in their own hands. They have many ways of accomplishing this end, 

 chief among which is to pay very high prices in territory where as.socia- 

 tions exist to the growers who are not members of the association. This, 

 of course, makes short-sighted growers Avithdraw from the association 



