The Great Strawberry Coop Push
Kennewick and Richland farmers are being urged to stop undercutting each other and unify their marketing power.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
If there is such a thing as getting the strawberry growers of the Kennewick-Richland valley together, it seems that now is a most opportune time to do it. The Richland growers are already together and are waiting for the Kennewick growers to meet them half way in perfecting a new marketing agency. The business and professional men of Kennewick have almost unanimously gone on record as favoring such an organization and have pledged their undivided support. It now remains for the producers of Kennewick strawberries to act. If they believe in co-operative marketing and the elimination of duplicate expenses and senseless price cutting, they now have an opportunity to put that belief to a practical test. It is needless to waste words in arguing against the undesirability of sending the local strawberry crop to market thru competing channels. Such a plan has been tried ever since strawberries were first grown in this valley. Of one thing there is absolutely no doubt: if there are no competing marketing agencies and no individual consignments, there will be no price cutting.
“If there is anything to this get-together business, let's find it out or let's quit talking about it. For one, I am ready to take a chance.”
The struggle to keep regional agricultural cooperatives alive remains a central issue in the Tri-Cities today. Economic cooperation vs. cutthroat competition is a perennial theme in local farming, echoing the same pressures that defined the valley's economy a century ago.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.