California Cured Fruit Association
| Active |
1900 - 1903 |
|---|
Grower's cooperative.
Locations
| Location | Years | Address | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Campbell |
Interior photo in Sunsweet Story. | ||
| San Jose | 1902 | 69 W. Santa Clara Street | |
| Santa Clara | 1901, 1906 |
Packing house |
Details
Founder: Judge H.G. Bond, signed 3800 farmers / 75% of the dried fruit growers in the state.
Sunsweet book says Charles Wesley Childs was an early proponent; a convention of dried fruit producers was held on January 15-17, 1900 to discuss the plan, only to be done if 75% of the production of the crop could be organized in the association. The association would try to maintain a price for the crop. First act for the association was to negotiate contract with 65 packers to receive and handle the members' crops. The packers organized their own cooperative - the California Packers Company - to pool sales and earnings.
Sunsweet Story: Fate was against the Cured Fruit Asociation from the start. 1900 was an all-time record crop, as were the crops in France, Bosnia, and Serbia. It was impossible to sell even small California prunes in Europe. Nonaffiliated packers simply set their prices at $10 a ton below the association's prices. Some growers seemed to sell outside the system - rather thn the association's 22 million pounds, 59 million were sold. Only 47% of the crop was sold by June 1901.
Lawsuit over construction of packing house at Santa Clara, settled in favor of the association in August 22, 1901 Los Angeles Herald Napa Fruit Company hadn't been too pleased about new plant acc to July 20, 1901 Pacific Rural Press letter to the editor.
Went bankrupt in 1903 when they couldn't sell the record crops of 1900 and 1901 at high enough prices.
Packing house in Santa Clara purchased by Cured Fruit Association of California, according to October 11, 1902 San Jose Evening News Described as one of many growers' cooperatives, in the same vein as Campbell Fruit Growers Union or Berryessa Fruit Growers Union. Article in September 4, 1901 San Jose Evening News notes that all the cooperatives in the San Jose area were also members of the California Cured Fruit Union.
(See San Francisco Call 1900 list of delivery spots for California Cured Fruit Association)
Hayward wasn't completely ignored by the various organizations; the March 26, 1900 San Jose Evening News gives a one-line news item that "Haywards fruit growers have formed a branch of the California Cured Fruit Association."