Area farmers slated to start cooperative
By Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
LarryM@argusobserver.com
Friday, September 25, 2009 10:28 AM PDT
ONTARIO — A group of Treasure Valley onion farmers are working to form a cooperative for growers to focus primarily on marketing the crop to help stabilize onion prices and enhance profitability.
The effort, dubbed United Onions, USA Inc., already boasts a founding cooperative committee that will hold a meeting next month to discuss the proposal with interested growers and sign up members.
“We’ve been working on this since March,” Brent Ishida, a member of the cooperative committee said.
The informational meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 7, at the Holiday Inn, Ontario. Besides Ishida, Adrian, other members of the cooperative committee are Dan Corn, Nyssa; Greg Panike, Ontario; Joe Farmer, Nyssa; John Wong, Parma and Trevor Frahm, Ontario.
Recognizing there are already other organizations in the valley that support the industry, Ishida said the primary focus of the co-op will be only marketing and production.
They will leave such issues as pesticide regulation, labor, packing standards and cultural standards to the growers’ association, the trade association and the marketing order, he said.
The cooperative is open only to growers, who can designate a legal agent to attend meetings in their place, and only growers will be allowed to vote.
The cooperative, created under the Capper Volstead Act, will be the legal umbrella growers utilize to discuss production and marketing and issues affecting them, Ishida said.
“We hope to gain all the onion growers in the valley,” Ishida said, and members hope to expand the cooperative to other onion growing regions. He described the committee members as interested parties who are wanting to make a difference in how onions are marketed.
“We’re just trying to add a little stability (to the industry)” he said.
“Our purpose is to build an organization dedicated to an accurate and timely study of supply trends and marketing trends within the Idaho/ Eastern Oregon onion industry and neighboring growing regions,” a letter to growers from the committee said. More information is available at the cooperative’s Web site, www.unitedonions-usa.com.
