The Battle for the Strawberry Market
Kennewick strawberry growers attempt to end internal price-cutting by forming a unified marketing union.
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.
Are the strawberry growers of the Kennewick-Richland district going to stand by the organization in which they have enrolled as members? The manner in which this question is answered is the most important factor in marketing this year’s crop. The experience of years has demonstrated that the buying public will desert California strawberries at $1.00 a crate for local berries at $2.00, but will not pay $2.00 if they can buy them for $1.50. Every price-tumble in former years can be traced to price-cutting at this end of the line—not from fighting California, but from fighting the 'man across the street' and the 'consignment bug.' This year, the growers have united to eliminate this internal competition. The board of directors has planned for success, but outside forces are already at work trying to win away support and restore chaotic conditions. Any grower who accepts a 'bonus' from a broker to break the agreement is an insidious pest, as damaging to the industry as the root weevil. Any dealer who wants the industry to thrive will walk up like a man and buy his berries through the Kennewick-Richland Marketing Union, the growers’ own selling agency. If a buyer refuses to play fair at the designated warehouse, set the dog on them.
“The bug bores under the ground and saps the vitality of the plant; the man bores into the very heart of the marketing situation and saps its life.”
Agricultural cooperatives remain a vital, often contentious, part of the Tri-Cities economy. This 1915 editorial highlights the timeless struggle between independent price-cutting and collective bargaining in the pursuit of regional economic stability.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.