California Fruit Canners Association

Summary

Business	Cannery
Main Location	San Francisco, CA
Active	1899 - 1916
Predecessors	F. P. Cutting Company, San Jose Fruit Packing Company, King-Morse Canning Company, Oakland Preserving Company, M. J. Fontana and Company, Sacramento Packing Company, California Fruit Preserving Company, and Marysville Packing Company, Rose City Packing Company, A. F. Tenney Canning Company, Courtland Canning Company, the Whitter Cannery, Chico Canning Company, Lincoln Fruit Packing Company, Sutter Canning & Packing Company, and Southern California Packing Company. CFCA also ran dried fruit packing houses.
Successors	California Packing Corporation

California Fruit Canners Association was a company formed by the consolidation of eighteen canning companies. The CFCA was formed on June 15, 1899; the merger was intended to help efficiency by sharing costs and increase purchase prices for crops that would rival the cooperatives. CFCA also cut costs through exclusive agency deals with wholesalers; J. K. Armsby initially was the broker for the CFCA, but within a few years had the Midwest agency given to another company, and found the CFCA willing to sell its own products on the west coast. The CFCA took all parts of the companies - 30 canneries, trademarks, and paraphernalia. The CFCA represented a huge chunk of U.S. canning capacity, estimated at not more than 60% of the canned fruit market. CFCA merged into the new California Packing Corporation at the company's inception in 1916.

An 1899 news article claimed that twenty-six of the twenty-nine large canneries in California were planning on joining including Hunt Brothers; they excluded California Canneries, Code-Portwood Canning Company, and Southern California Packing Co. They also ignored the "few small canneries" including "the Chinese cannery, the Los Gatos, the Ainsley, the Overland, the Corbille, Golden Gate".

Guaranteed members of the CFCA included the F. P. Cutting Company in Oakland, San Jose Fruit Packing Company, King-Morse Canning Company in San Francisco and San Leandro, Oakland Preserving Company, M. J. Fontana and Company in San Francisco, Sacramento Packing Company, California Fruit Preserving Company, and Marysville Packing Company. In 1900, the company took over nine more companies, including Rose City Packing Company of Santa Rosa, A. F. Tenney Canning Company in Fresno, Courtland Canning Company, the Whitter Cannery, Chico Canning Company, Lincoln Fruit Packing Company, Sutter Canning & Packing Company, and Southern California Packing Company. "Thus, at the end of the second season, the California Fruit Canners' Association controlled twenty-seven plants in twenty-two cities." About half of the initial plants were in California; the rest were in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Hawaii. A list of the 1901 canneries appears in a California board of horticulture biennial report from 1901.

"The California Fruit Canners' Association, which has for years been the dominant factor in the canning business on the Pacific Coast, was organized on June 15, 1899; and the efforts toward consolidation of the California packers were crowned with partial success. The association included originally the following plants : Cutting Packing Company, San Jose Fruit Packing Company, King-Morse Company, Oakland Preserving Company, Fontana & Company, Sacramento Packing Company, California Fruit Preserving Company, and Marysville Packing Company In 1900, nine more plants were taken over, including: Hunt Bros. Fruit Packing Company, Rose City Packing Company, A. F. Tenney Canning Company, Courtland Canning Company, Whittier Cannery, Chico Canning Company, Lincoln Fruit Packing Company, Sutter Canning & Packing Company, and Southern California Packing Company Thus, at the end of the second season, the California Fruit Canners' Association controlled twenty-seven plants in twenty-two cities. During the season of 1914, seventeen canning factories were operated by the association."

"In 1913, the California Fruit Canners' Association operated the world's largest cannery in North Beach. It had a capacity of 24 million cans a year, about one-seventh of the state total, and most of the more than 1,000 workers were Italians."

The number of canneries varied over time; By 1914, the company had seventeen separate canneries. Robert Bentley named them as "two in San Francisco, one in Oakland, one in San Jose, one in Stockton, one in Sacramento, one at Marysville, one at Hanford, one at Visalia, one at Los Angeles, one at Santa Rosa, one each at Leandro, Milpitas, Vorden, and Pittsburg.", with twelve million dollars in sales every year. In 1913, light fruit crops meant that only five of the twenty-six caneries were operating that year. In 1915, CFCA had fifty Del Monte branded products, and 72 other leading brands.

The company was led by the principals of some of the formative companies. Marco Fontana and partner William Fries led the consolidation, with Fontana (founder of Italian Swiss Colony and M. J. Fontana and Company was the first superintendent, and Fries the initial president. Other organizers include Sydney Smith of F. P. Cutting, Fredrick Tillman Jr. of the Oakland Preserving Company, and Robert Bentley and Charles Harvey Bentley of the Sacramento Packing Company.

When the California Packing Corporation was formed, CFCA's size and experience meant that its principals often led Del Monte. T.B. Dawson, son of the founder of the San Jose Fruit Packing Company, became the general superintendent of Del Monte; Robert Bentley, formerly of the Golden Gate Packing Company, became the president of the California Packing Corporation.

Contemporary news reports suggest that the formation of the CFCA led to some nasty competitive battles, both with the growers and with other canners. See Opposition to the California Fruit Canners' Association for more details.

Locations

Location	Plant #	Years	Address	Details
Chico		1906
Fresno		1907, 1909		Plant destroyed by fire on May 25, 1909. The plant was not rebuilt by 1910, but instead shipped fruit to Hanford and Visalia.
Hanford		1907, 1915		Plant not in operation in 1915
Healdsburg		1907
Los Angeles	#22	1900-1916	900 Macy Street	Corner of Macy and Mission Road, between Mission Road and the Los Angeles and Salt Lake railroad tracks. Former Sherman Concentrated Fruit Company warehouse being used by CFCA in 1906 according to Sanborn map. Became California Packing Corporation plant.
Marysville		1907, 1915		Former Marysville Packing Company. Was canning plums and peaches in 1910.
Milpitas		1907, 1915		Former Oakland Preserving Company.
Oakland		1907, 1915	1st and Linden	Former Oakland Preserving Company
Pittsburg		1915
Sacramento		1907, 1915		Former Sacramento Packing Company.
San Francisco		1915	Van Ness av & Bay	Former M. J. Fontana and Company.
San Francisco		1907	436 Sansome	1906 photo available
San Francisco		1907, 1915	7th and Berry
San Jose		1899-1915	Auzerais Avenue (1899-1915)	Becomes Del Monte
San Jose		1900, 1902, 1904, 1906	San Carlos Avenue at narrow gauge tracks
San Leandro		1907, 1915		Former King-Morse Canning Company.
Santa Ana				Former F. P. Cutting Company plant, became Del Monte, abandoned by 1960's.
Santa Rosa		1915		Rose City Packing Company
Stockton		1915
Visalia		1915		Probably former A. F. Tenney Canning Company.
Vorden		1907, 1915		Former Courtland Canning Company. Asparagus.
Yuba City		1907

California Fruit Canners Association in Los Angeles

In 1903, the cashier for the CFCA took some signed, blank checks, wrote them payable to himself, and fled with $5,000, "deserting his wife and seven children." J. Weller Reed, the cashier, bought a ticket for Duarte, but disappeared.

The Los Angeles plant was also well-known for using child labor, with reports of 13 and 14 year old children doing 16 hours work. The manager, Weightman Smith, was brought up on charges in 1905, but political connections and helpful rulings from the judge and district attorney helped him avoid prosecution.

The Los Angeles plant became a California Packing Corporation plant, and had work done on the basement in 1920.