Production and Marketing Activities of the Agricultural Co-operatives Association in Aomori Prefecture between the l870s and l920s

This article analyzed the production and marketing activities of the Agricultural Co-operatives Association established in Takedate Village in the Tsugaru district of Aomori Prefecture in 1907. In the early stages of the Meiji period, this area was considered as backward in terms of commodity production and circulation. However, the Agricultural Co-operatives Association, Takedate-kumiai had been highly evaluated for its business marketing across the nation, and had built a brand name for itself. Takedate-kumiai was the cutting-edge case of the industrial associations which is supposed to have spread out in earnest in the 1930s. We obtained the followings results. (1) By means of production inspection before packaging, the association made an effort toward not only the production of high-quality apples but also their trusted shipment in accordance with the brand name and standards established for itself. All these were extremely advanced efforts in agricultural commodity transactions. (2) However, until the early 1910s, the business sales of the association encountered certain problems. One problem was that the association partners had illegally sold apples to merchants and therefore, could not gather enough apples to sell. Another problem was that the specification wholesalers in the great city did not make all their payments smoothly. While being such status, the association thought much of the trust and the autonomy at the partners and the wholesales. It supported without laying down compulsion and a penalty regulation. (3) The problems mentioned in the above point were solved in the latter half of 1910s. The association received special awarding in 1916 and became flagrant nationwide and succeeded in establishing a brand name image. The partners recognized that apples sold on behalf of the association should be done so at favorable prices. As the associationfs apples became famous in the markets of consuming regions, wholesalers came to recognize special wholesale contracts with this association as an honor. Consequently, the association grew to be an economic organization that took the initiative in product sales to wholesalers even in important cities such as Tokyo.