Container Procurement by Cooperative Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Packers

Excerpts from the report: Several hundred cooperatives pack and market a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables each year. For these operations, they purchase a substantial quantity of containers and packaging supplies for their own use, and some also buy quantities for member-growers who pack and ship their own products. These associations require a variety of types and sizes of such items as paperboard cartons; wooden boxes, crates, baskets, and the like; burlap, cotton, and plastic bags; and wraps, fillers, liners, and labels. The specific objectives of this project were to: 1. Analyze and evaluate the present system that marketing cooperatives use in purchasing and manufacturing containers and packaging supplies for fresh fruit and vegetables; and 2. Determine possible methods of effecting savings or improving services in the procurement of such containers and packaging supplies