Papc 10 



BETTER FRUIT 



March 



Northwest Fruit Exchange Submits SelHng Plan 



THE following is a plan submitted by 

 the Northwestern Fruit Exchange 

 to the Growers' Meeting in Seattle Jan- 

 uary 22, which was referred to the 

 Tacoma Meeting, held February 15, for 

 further consideration : 



"Resolved, That this convention go 

 on record as favoring the following 

 definite constructive program: That 

 an advisory board shall be created, 

 broadly representative of the fruit 

 growers of the four Northwestern 

 States, and that the functions of this 

 advisory board shall be as follows: 



"(1) To call the heads of the vari- 

 ous marketing agencies into joint con- 

 ference from time to time, as occasion 

 may require, with a view of consulta- 

 tion as to market conditions. 



"(2) General standardization of all 

 methods from tree to car, including 

 picking, grading, packing, hauling, as- 

 sembling, loading and shipping, with a 

 view of eliminating many wasteful ex- 

 travagances and errors, which are 

 costing the growers heavily at the 

 present time. 



"(3) Uniform, efficient and impar- 

 tial official inspection, with a view of 

 creating confidence in the minds of 

 absent buyers, and attaching to the 

 products of the Northwest staple value 

 which will not only induce the freest 

 trading but will make said products 

 bankable security for loans. 



"(4) Industrial advertising of North- 

 western fruits, without reference to 

 brand, which will supplement, rather 

 than interfere, with the promotion of 



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special brands; this campaign to com- 

 prehend not only the creation of con- 

 sumptive demand for our products, 

 but also the education of consumer, 

 retailer and wholesaler, as to varie- 

 ties, uses and handling of our pro- 

 ducts in proper manner to insure 

 highest satisfaction. Through tliis ad- 

 vertising and educational campaign, a 

 definite effort to be made to render 

 the handling of our products so safe 

 as naturally to establish a more rea- 

 sonable margin of profits by the trade 

 — especially the retail trade — than are 

 now in many cases exacted, by rea- 

 son of the dangerous, unregulated and 

 unprotected character of the business. 



"( ) A transportation bureau, rep- 

 resenting the combined tonnage of the 

 Northwest, with a view of presenting 

 a solid industrial front to common 

 carriers in tranportation matters. 



"(6) A first class crop statistical 

 bureau, under professional manage- 

 ment; this bureau to gather data con- 

 cerning crops, not only of apples, but 

 all other deciduous fruits, and also in 

 a general way, of citrus fruits, ban- 

 anas and all others that affect the 

 Northwestern fruit market position, 

 directly or indirectly. The functions 

 of this bureau could be extended in 

 certain directions with high advan- 

 tage. To illustrate: It is generally 

 known that last year there were 

 shipped out of the Northwest around 

 8000 cars of apples, and this vear be- 

 tween 12,000 and l.S.OOO, but nobody 

 knows how manv cars of .lonathan 

 apples were shinned in anv season. !t 

 is quite conceivable that, whereas, 

 general apjjle crops ma^' be abundant, 

 there mav well be, at the same tim''. 

 an important variety shortage, and 

 full knowledge of this would enable 

 sellers to exact a higher orice for the 

 short varietv than the general price 

 nosilion of the market would other- 

 wise indicate. 



"(7) Adoption of an official, uni- 

 form classification of average reutrns 

 made bv the various marketing agen- 

 cies to their princinals, to which shall 

 be given bv the advisorv board gen- 

 eral and widespread publicity. It is a 

 well known fact that, owing to the 

 radical difference in these classifica- 

 tions at the present time fruit grow- 

 ers are unable intelligently to compare 



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the results of one with the other, and 

 without this ability it is impossible 

 for them to be certain whether or not 

 the service received is the best service 

 available. This one thing has caused 

 severe losses to thousands of fruit 

 growers, and is an evil easy of cor- 

 rection. 



"(8) The appointment of a firm of 

 chartered accountants, of national rep- 

 utation, acceptable to all concerned, 

 including the marketing agencies, who 

 shall, in behalf of the advisory board, 

 and representing the fruit growers of 

 the entire Northwest, audit the ac- 

 counting of the various marketing 

 agencies, and certify to the advisory 

 board as to the exact correctness of 

 the published averages. 



"The adoption of these two provis- 

 ions alone would result in the auto- 

 matic elimination of incompetent 

 agencies, and afford fruit growers at 

 large an absolutely dependable basis 

 of judgment in the selection of their 

 sales representatives. These two things 

 alone, taken together, would establish 

 a bond of confidence between grow- 

 ers and their servants which is now 

 generally lacking, and would result in 

 the saving to the industrial commun- 

 ity of hundreds of thousands of dol- 

 lars in any given season, after its 

 operations liad become effective. No 

 marketing agency can legitimately ob- 

 ject to these provisions. Successful co- 

 operation between growers and their 

 agencies nuist be based on confidence, 

 and cannot be based on suspicion and 

 distrust. There must be a reason for 

 confidence. 



"(9) The working out, in conjunc- 

 tion with the heads of marketing 

 agencies of a jiractical plan for the 

 regulation and restriction of the 

 tramp car evil, so far as it is an evil; 

 the Peneral idea being largely to abol- 

 ish the shipment of car to intermed- 

 iate gatewav destinations, and rather, 

 to bill practically all cars unsold at 

 time of shipment directly from ship- 

 ing point to destination markets. In 

 this manner the unsold surplus may 

 be distributed over the whole market 

 in correct relation to the consump- 

 tive or distribuling capacity of each, 

 thereby avoiding congestion, oversui)- 

 ply, demoralization, and the resultant 

 injustice to that section of the trade 

 which has already invested its money 

 in our ])roducts. and who are entitled 

 to protection. In this manner small 

 markets, now not consumers of our 

 fruits, can be developed, and large 

 central markets, having a wide influ- 

 ence over the whole situation, can be 

 regulated and kept healthy — a most 

 vital consideration. The one feature 

 of organized protection of tlie trade 

 who have invested their monev in our 

 fruits and thereby become copartners 

 with ourselves in the business would 

 result enormously in the creation of a 

 solid foundation of confidence be- 

 tween buyers and sellers, that could 

 and would be capitalized by us. This 

 confidence would disjilace the general 

 misunderstanding and distrust which 

 exists now between producers and 

 buyers, which is a deterrent factor in 

 the develoi)iuent of our industr\." 



