40 Years of Reducing Risk for Farmers

YUBA CITY, CA, April 25, 2008 – Members of the Prune Bargaining Association are celebrating the 40th anniversary of the founding of the organization. To mark the occasion members will hear from several speakers on how to prosper in a changing world and times of rapidly rising costs by reducing risk and using cooperative methods to improve grower returns. The luncheon meeting takes place Friday, May 2 beginning at 10:00 am at Manzanita Place (the Elk’s Lodge), 1705 Manzanita Ave, Chico CA. Reservations are required. Members may call the PBA office at 530-674-5636 by Tuesday, April 29 to reserve their seat.

Members will also have a chance to hear how the Association has fared this past year through difficult price negotiations, state ordered conciliation, and the strong progress made so far in the membership drive now underway. PBA President, Keith Larrabee, will outline the change in direction that the Board of Directors has undertaken. “Thanks to the dedication of our members and the tenacity of the Board, good things are beginning to happen,” says Larrabee. “We believe that everyone involved in the prune industry is now realizing that if we do not cooperate and try to understand ‘the other guy,’ then none of us will succeed in having a profitable business.”

To highlight the powerful potential of growers acting together to solve common problems, guest speaker, Albert Wada, the largest potato grower in Idaho, will explain how he believed that growers would work together if provided with the right information. “Potato farms were experiencing steady losses,” explains Wada. “Equity in their businesses was going down the drain.” Many dismissed the ideal of a cooperative of growers working together to reduce risks by moderating production to better reflect market demand as impossible. No one thought that independent-minded growers from different areas of the country could actually trust one another to form such a powerful union, but it has been done and is successful.

The Prune Bargaining Association was formed in 1968 as a grower-owned cooperative to improve the economy of the California prune industry, encourage the production of a quality product and provide a forum for growers to exchange ideas regarding the industry. The PBA establishes the industry’s raw product price for prunes.