PROBLEMS OF COOPERATIVE MARKETING ASSOCIATIONS 



which handicaps the organizations and nullifies many of the services 

 they might otherwise render. 



In order to arrive at an understanding of the problems which the 

 managers and officers of cooperative associations consider most 

 acute, a survey of the fruit and vegetable organizations was made 

 by questionnaire and by personal interviews. Returns were received 

 from 1,290 associations, whose location is shown by Figure 1. 



Many of these associations had been organized comparatively 

 recently. Over half the organizations that reported the year in 

 which they were organized had been in business for less than 5 

 years (see Table 3). About 27 per cent had been operating for 

 10 years, or more; approximately 14 per cent for 15 years, or longer; 

 and a little over 8 per cent for 20 years or longer. Although there 

 is a substantial nucleus of Avell-established organizations, the 

 majority are of comparatively recent origin. 



No associations were included in this study unless at least 50 per 

 cent of their members were active producers. A little over 86 per 

 cent of the associations reporting stated that all members were 

 farmers, whereas approximately 14 per cent had members who were 

 not farmers. The average membership of all associations reporting 

 on this point was approximately 156, making the total membership 

 of 1,290 organizations from which records were obtained in excess 

 of 200,000. 



Approximately 49 per cent of the organizations reporting were 

 engaged in marketing fruit, a little over 24 per cent were marketing 

 vegetables, and approximately 27 per cent handle both fruits and 

 vegetables. In volume of business, fruit greatly exceeded vegetables 

 both in number of cars and in value. A comparison of the two 

 products is shown in Table 5. 



Table 3. 



-Number of years 616 fruit and vegetable associations have been 

 active, and percentage of total each group represents 



Years active 



Number 



Percent- 

 age 



Cumu- 

 lative 

 per cent 



Years active 



Number 



Percent- 

 age 



Cumu- 

 lative 

 per cent 



1 to5 ^ 



313 

 134 



83 

 35 

 24 

 15 



50.8 

 21.7 

 13.4 



5.7 

 3.9 

 2.4 



50.8 

 72.5 

 86.0 

 91.7 

 95.6 

 98.0 



30 to 35 



10 

 1 



1 



1.6 

 .2 

 .2 



99.6 



5 to 10 



35 to 40 



99.8 



10 to 15 





100.0 





Total.- 





20 to 25 



616 



100.0 





25 to 30 









Reports from 944 associations show that 725 or 76.8 per cent were 

 incorporated, whereas the balance, 219 or 23.2 per cent, were not. 

 Fruit and vegetable marketing associations are incorporated with 

 capital stock or as nonstock, or membership, organizations. Of the 

 associations reporting, 42.5 per cent were organized with capital 

 stock and 57.5 per cent were nonstock organizations. The features 

 of these two forms of organizations are generally well known. 



Fruit and vegetable associations, as shown by the reports received, 

 are more commonly organized on the nonstock plan. Membership 

 in associations of this type is conditional on the payment of a mem- 



