Cooperative Procurement of Containers for Fruit and Vegetable Processing

Excerpts from the report: Cooperatives engaged in processing fruits and vegetables use a wide variety of containers such as metal cans, glass bottles and jars, paperboard cartons, and plastic bags. Annual expenditures for these supplies are often one-third or more of total processing costs and equal to a fifth of the sales value of the products marketed. The principal objectives of this project were to: 1. Analyze and evaluate the present system used by cooperative marketing associations for purchasing, manufacturing, and transporting containers and packaging materials for fruits and vegetables. 2. Determine methods by which savings can be made or services improved in procuring container and packaging supplies.