CALIFORNIA AVOCADO ASSOCIATION 



75 



to be of service to the avocado growers in the formation and operation of a sales 

 organization for avocados. If the Avocado Association should put the propo- 

 sition before the Cahfornia Fruit Growers' Exchange in a concrete form and 

 should be unable to secure an affiliation with that organization, I am sure it would 

 be wise for the avocado growers to form a co-operative organization of their 

 own, and even if the avocado growers should secure such an affiliation, there 

 would still be a necessity for them to have some organization of their own to 

 work with the citrus organization. 



The formation of a co-operative marketing organization for avocados 

 should follow closely along the lines established by the California Fruit 

 Growers' Exchange. Its members should be all growers who agree to market 

 their fruit through the organization. They should elect a Board of Directors 

 who in turn would select a manager and his assistants. Headquarters should 

 be established at a suitable location in the terminal markets of Los Angeles where 

 offices, sales rooms and packing rooms could be located. 



The manager of this organization should call in what amounts and vari- 

 eties of fruit he decides necessary for marketing from time to time pro rata 

 from the different growers according to the amount of fruit they hold. He 

 should distribute this fruit to the different markets throughout the country, collect 

 moneys for the sale of the fruits, and turn such moneys over to the growers, 

 deducting the necessary amount for the expenses of operating the organization. 

 Some of this fruit could be ordered direct to buyers from the groves instead of 

 being brought to Los Angeles, which a good many growers might wish to do. 

 At the beginning of, and at intervals during each season a careful estimate 

 should be made of the number of avocados of each variety available ; the Associ- 

 ation should adopt a label which should be placed on all boxes ; a sticker showing 

 the variety of fruit should be placed on all fruits so that people in using them 

 would become acquainted with the different varieties and thus recognize the 

 superiority of one variety over another after they had learned the difference; 

 establish different grades of fruit; agree upon a container; decide whether selling 

 fruit by weight or by dozen should prevail; establish selling arrangements in all 

 the large cities with such reliable jobbers as are making the avocado a specialty, 

 thus being able to keep in close touch with all the markets of the country and 

 distribute the crop in a uniform cind equitable manner, preventing certain markets 

 being over-crowded and others under-supplied; conduct campaigns of advertising 

 through the newspapers of the difFerent cities; operate demonstration booths to 

 better acquaint the people with the avocado as a food product, and many other 

 details which it is not necessary to mention. 



The cost of conducting such an organization is hard to determine. The 

 highest cost would probably be the first two or three years and would gradually 

 grow less as the amount of fruit marketed would develop. I believe an assess- 

 ment of ten cents a pound upon all fruit handled by this organization in the begin- 

 ning and which would grow less from year to year would fully cover the cost 

 of this organization. 



Whether you adopt this form of marketing or not, I strongly urge upon you 

 to adopt at once some method by which you can prevent the glutting of the 

 markets with fruit — especially immature fruit — and make it possible for one 

 grower to obtain about the same returns for his fruit as his neighbor, as there have 

 been a number of complaints made that there was too much difference between 

 the returns to the different growers of fruit. The adoption of any form of mar- 

 keting, I am sure, will be helpful to the growers. 



