Coordinated Marketing -- Would It Help Cooperative Fruit and Vegetable Processors?

Excerpts from the report: Knowledge of the nature and extent of interest in a coordinated marketing program, and of the nature of the market any coordinated effort would face, is prerequisite to successful initiation of any joint merchandising effort. Farmer Cooperative Service planned a study in two phases to find answers to some of these problems. The first phase measured processor interest in improving their marketing activities. The second phase, now underway, will measure the market now faced, and to be faced, by fruit and vegetable processing firms. This report discusses material gathered in the first phase of the project. Its overall objectives have been: (1) To assist cooperative and other processors and shippers in developing joint selling and merchandising programs to increase efficiency and expand distribution; (2) to study factors involved in operating such programs successfully; and (3) to develop plans and procedures for initiating them.