affected by their entering the niarketinti field, there exists a 

 strong incentive for trie fonnation of producers' cooperative iiiarket- 

 Iri'Z associations. Trade associations may be industrywide and have 

 combined producer and dealer membership. Ifliere interests of producers 

 and dealers clash they may be coxiiposed exclusively of either flshex-raen 

 or distributors. 



Functionally, the distinction between the three types of 

 organization can perhaps be dra-vm on the following basis: 



(1) Trade associations are organizations concerned with 

 activities other than marketing. legislative, research, statistical 

 and public relations woi-k affecting the entire industry or a segment 

 thereof, is vrLthin the normal sphere of operations. 



(2) Labor unions in the fisheries, wherever the lay system 

 of compensation is employed, are chiefly concerned with price negotia- 

 tions and the specific terms of the lay. In the rarer instances, wherever 



the practice of compensating fishermen on a piecework (cents per pound 

 caught) or time basis is encountered, the activities of the union are 

 concentrated on wage negotiations, zd/ 



(3) The functions performed by marketing cooperatives vary 

 a great deal from locality to locality. Originally marketing coopera- 

 tives were organized to eliminate certain handling costs charged by 

 middlemen. Subsequently more specialized functions as quality control 

 and coordinated selling have been undertaken. Some cooperatives more 

 recently have branched out into processing and have succeeded in achiev- 

 ing integration of operations from fishing up to, but not including, 

 retail distribution. As a result, there are today cooperatives in the 

 fisheries which confine themselves to acting in the capacity of producers' 

 agents in the marketing process as well as others v/hich assume title and 

 possess up-to-date processing and primary wholesaling facilities. 



A listing of the principal organizations whose membership 

 includes shrimp industry representation will be found on page 12ii. 



The Twin City Fishermen's Cooperative Association 



Cooperative marketing is an important factor in the distribu- 

 tion of frozen shrimp in the Morgan City, Louisiana area. 



The Twin City Fishennen's Cooperative Association, Inc., was 

 chartered under the provisions of the Louisiana Seafood Marketing Act 

 and began activities in 19^6. It is a non-stock corporation with 

 paid-in capital obtained from the payment of membership fees. 



13/ See the comments about the employment of fishermen beginning 

 on page 112. 



109 



