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Abstract
Report Recommendations: Grain farmers can capture a greater share of the expanding export market by acting on the following suggestions for improving the cooperative grain marketing system: 1. Develop an overall strategy for direct export sales that would maximize cooperative strengths, permit c.i.f. sales, and provide personalized service to foreign buyers; 2. Form one export cooperative—not through merger but with all regionals as members of a federation—to make all export decisions, own or lease present and future port facilities, and coordinate grain movements and sales to foreign buyers; 3. Develop a foreign sales and information system through a competent research staff and a top-notch sales organization that includes foreign sales offices staffed with the export cooperative’s employees; 4. Establish additional port elevators, either through acquisition, or, as a last resort, construction; 5. Centralize the leasing of hopper cars under a new cooperative agency to coordinate the movement of grain to port elevators; 6. Increase regional commitment of grain to the central export cooperative; 7. Establish a seasonal export pool between regional cooperatives and the central export cooperative; and 8. Determine capital contributions by each regional based on the volume of grain to be marketed through the export cooperative.