PROBLEMS OF COOPERATIVE MARKETING ASSOCIATIONS 



39 



Their location, the services rendered, and the basis on which a 

 charge is fixed for these services are shown in Table 7. 



Table 7. — Types of fruit and vegetable distributing agencies 



Type of agency- 



Cooperative sales agency 



Noncooperative sales agency 



Cash buyers 



Buying brokers 



Selling brokers 



Commission merchants.- 



Fruit and produce auctions.. 



F. o. b. auctions 



Receivers and jobbers 



Retailers 



Location 



Shipping point. 

 do 



do 



do 



All car-lot markets 



All wholesale markets. 



Large markets 



do 



All wholesale markets. 

 All retail markets 



Service performed Remuneration 



Selling agents. 

 do 



Buy for resale. 

 Buying agents 

 Selling agents. 



.-.do 



do 



do 



Buy for resale. 

 do 



Cost of service. 

 Fixed brokerage. 

 Market spread. 

 Fixed brokerage. 



Do. 

 Fixed percentage. 



Do. 



Do. 

 Market spread. 



Do. 



SALES AGENCIES 



Cooperative sales agencies may be local, regional, or national from 

 the standpoint of either the producing area or the consuming area 

 served. In addition, they may be operated by and for one particular 

 section and commodity or may serve many organizations, many con- 

 suming centers, and handle many kinds of products. For example, 

 the production area served and the products handled by the sales 

 department of the California Fruit Growers' Exchange are limited, 

 but the consuming area served is international. Another example is 

 the Federated Fruit and Vegetable Growers, Inc., an organization 

 that serves many producing areas, handles many kinds of products, 

 and maintains market agents in many consuming centers. 



Cooperative sales agencies selling fruits and vegetables for co- 

 operative associations, generally maintain offices at some central point 

 in the producing area. They sell through their own agents in the 

 markets, or through brokers or other types of agencies. Their 

 charges are based on the cost of operation, but are collected generally 

 as a fixed charge per package or per car and any excess refunded 

 later. Noncooperative sales agencies are private sales organizations 

 operating on a per package or per car charge stipulated in a con- 

 tract with the organization served. In operation, they differ little 

 from cooperative sales agencies. 



Both noncooperative and cooperative sales agencies sell either 

 through their own agents, or brokers, usually in carload lots, to 

 wholesale receivers and large jobbers. They may also sell to large 

 retailers, such as the chain-store system. Their sales, as a rule, are 

 made on wire quotations from the shipping point, and either as 

 f . o. b. or delivered sales. A portion of their supplies may be sold 

 through the terminal fruit and produce auctions in the markets in 

 which these auctions are located. 



BUYERS AND BUYING BROKERS 



The cash buyer purchases products prior to shipment, and often 

 harvests, assembles, grades, and packs the products and supervises 

 the loading. He may operate for his own account, or on a joint 

 account agreement with a large distributing firm, or a receiver in 

 the market, or he may be the salaried representative of such firms or 

 receivers. Though cash buyers are to be found at most shipping 



