UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



DEPARTMENT BULLETIN No. 1414 



Washington, D. C. 



July, 1926 



MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS OF COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATIONS 

 MARKETING FRUITS AND VEGETABLES 1 



By A. W. McKay, Marketing Economist, and W. J. Kuhrt, Assistant Marketing 

 Economist, Bureau of Agricultural Economics 



CONTENTS 



Page. 



Problems of fruit and vegetable asso- 

 ciations 6 



Volume of business 6 



Too many varieties 10 



Packing, storage, and grading 



difficulties 11 



Control of delivery 17 



Inefficient sales service 17 



Retailing methods and margins- 18 



Transportation difficulties 19 



Other organization and management 



problems 20 



Problems of organization 20 



Membership control 21 



Contracts 22 



By-laws 23 



• Management 24 



Page. 

 Other organization and management 

 problems — Continued. 



Financing marketing associa- 

 tions 25 



Accounting records 30 



Pooling 34 



Marketing agencies and methods 37 



Distributing agencies- 37 



Methods of sale 41 



Adjustments and rejections 43 



Advertising 44 



Relation of production to coopera- 

 tive marketing 46 



Changes in the supply 49 



Functions of the cooperative as- 

 sociation 5o 



The value of fruits and vegetables marketed by cooperative asso- 

 ciations increased approximately 170 per cent between 1915 and 

 1924, or from $110,000,000 to $300,000,000. The relative prices for 

 fruits and vegetables during these years (see Table 1) indicate an 

 increase in the quantity of products handled by associations of a 

 little more than 80 per cent. 



During the same period it has become increasingly difficult to 

 market fruits and vegetables at prices satisfactory to the growers. 

 Table 1 shows that increases in the prices of other commodities 

 have been greater than for fruits and vegetables. Consequently, 

 the position of the growers is relatively less favorable than during 

 the pre- Avar years. Certain producers are operating under more unfa- 

 vorable conditions than is indicated bv the index numbers for the 



1 The discussion in this bulletin refers particularly to the problems of the smaller 

 associations handling fruits and vegetables. 



86142°— 26 1 1 



