The Apple Pool That Beat the Wholesale Buyers
Two years in, a Wenatchee growers' co-operative had moved 300 carloads of fruit and sold 101 cars of apples to the highest bidder in the East — and one orchardist a mile and a half from town cleared $18,544.80.
The Wenatchee Valley Fruit Growers' association was established about two years ago with about 300 stockholders and was capitalized at $15,000. The object of the association is to secure better prices for fruit and to enable the fruit growers to dispose of their fruit through a medium of their own, and not through the hands of wholesale buyers, who buy only what they care to handle, the amount bought by them being regulated too much by the supply and demand of their own trade. The fruit growers now bring their fruit in and dispose of it to the association, who search for a market, and after disposing of it charge 10 per cent for selling.
During the past season the prices for the handling of fruit have been as follows: five cents a box for peaches and packages of like size, 7 cents a box for apples and packages of similar size.
Three hundred cars of fruit have been handled, approximating $1,000 a car, making the total amount handled by the association valued at about $300,000 for the year 1907.
One feature of the business of the past year was the big apple pool held in September. One hundred and one cars of apples were held by the association, and bids were advertised for in all parts of the United States. New York, Pittsburg, New Orleans, Washington, D. C., Chicago and other large cities throughout the east and middle west were apprised of the fact and bids came in from every direction.
When the bids were opened it was found that the best price offered for apples came from the east and south, and the 101 carloads were sold at prices far beyond the expectation of the leaders of the pool. The apples sold for an average of $1,000 a car and netted large sums to the fruit growers. The fruit was all delivered and the money paid before the money stringency came on.
An inspection of the books shows that the largest proceeds from this year's work of the association to any one individual was William Turner, who lives just about a mile and a half from Wenatchee. Mr. Turner had 18 acres of six-year-old orchard and 10 acres of five-year-old trees. The books show that he shipped 8,779 boxes of apples and received for them $18,544.80. Ninety-three boxes were sold for $162.55; 22 boxes sold for $48.70; 1,000 boxes of light colored apples sold for $1,000; 200 boxes are still held by the association for sale.
“One hundred and one cars of apples were held by the association, and bids were advertised for in all parts of the United States.”
Wenatchee built its identity on exactly this move: growers pooling their crop so the buyers in New York and Chicago had to bid rather than dictate. A century later the same county is still arguing about consolidation, packing-house control and who captures the value of an apple — the co-op was the original answer to that question.
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