The Struggle to Fix the Price
Local fruit and vegetable growers move to consolidate marketing efforts in an attempt to stabilize prices against market volatility.
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The first steps toward an affiliation between the association of local strawberry and asparagus growers and the association of growers at Pasco-Kennewick-Richland were taken at the meeting in the high school Tuesday evening. Tentative plans provide for a working agreement between the two associations that will permit the marketing of crops from both places through one channel. Officers of the local association said they had taken steps toward arranging this meeting with Lee M. Lampson, manager for the association of down-river growers, who noted that having 100 percent tonnage in the association allowed them to fix prices and secure better returns for the growers.
“Not only was the association able to fix the price o. b. Kennewick but by proper distribution methods it was able to market approximately 48,000 crates of strawberries last year against only 7000 crates the preceding year.”
The perennial struggle of local farmers to exert market power by organizing into cooperatives is a cornerstone of Washington’s agricultural history. Today's growers in the Columbia Basin still grapple with the tension between individual output and the benefits of collective bargaining.
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