The Strawberry Crisis in Kennewick
Local growers are producing a premium crop, but falling behind Spokane’s organized marketing machine.
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.
According to P. R. Parks, of Spokane, the strawberry growers in his district received for their 1915 crop an average price of $1.56 a crate. They paid 24 cents a crate for picking and nothing for packing. The average yield was 300 crates an acre. The Glen Mary variety is grown almost exclusively and the ripening season does not begin until June, after strawberries from the earlier districts are off the market. Last year the Kennewick growers received for their Clark Seedlings an average of $1.75 a crate. They paid 35 cents a crate for picking and 25 cents for packing. The average yield is about 150 crates an acre. The Spokane growers raised twice as many berries on an acre as did the Kennewick growers and received a higher net price per crate. The Spokane growers were organized, marketed their crop through one channel, applied business methods to their transactions and kept the price control within their own hands. The Kennewick grower did not. The Kennewick strawberry growers are engaged in the production of a fancy article for which they have not been receiving a fancy price. As long as this condition continues, the industry cannot thrive. Something must be done. The only course then that is open to the growers is to organize and to apply the same business methods to their marketing as the Spokane growers do to theirs.
“The Kennewick strawberry growers are engaged in the production of a fancy article for which they have not been receiving a fancy price.”
This 1916 editorial highlights a recurring tension in the Tri-Cities agricultural economy: the struggle between producing high-quality boutique goods and the necessity of vertical integration and scale. The call for organized marketing cooperatives remains a vital piece of the discussion regarding how local farmers compete with corporate agricultural chains today.
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