Where the subject may be perishable
but the insight isn’t.

United / PMA Merger Round-up

After a lull of many years, it was after the PMA convention in San Diego in the fall of 2006 that we first heard demands for a merger of PMA and United, motivated by a sense that the industry needed to present one voice on food safety issues. We discussed this issue in PMA/United Merger Fresh On Our Minds.

Next we heard commentary from Harris Cutler of Race-West Corporation and from Richard Kaiser of The Richard Kaiser Company as well as from Bob Davis of Maine Farmers Exchange. We put all these thoughts together in Pundit’s Mailbag — Should PMA and United Merge?

In PMA/United Merger-Mention Stirs Emotions, we heard the thoughtful voice of John McClung of the Texas Produce Association as he weighed on the subject based on his many years of experience with government relations efforts.

Lorri Koster of Mann Packing Company, Chuck Zambito of Zambito Produce Sales and and Jerry Van Solkema of Van Solkema Produce, Inc all added to our understanding of the issues by contributing to Pundit’s Mailbag — More On PMA/United Merger.

Tom Stenzel, President and CEO of United Fresh Produce Association, voiced his confidence in the ability of the boards of the respective associations to make a wise decision for the industry in Pundit’s Mailbag — United’s President/CEO Responds.

The Pundit tried to analyze a possible format for a merger in PMA/United Merger Dilemma: A Two-Track Proposal.

Then in our Pundit’s Mailbag — More on PMA/United Merger, we heard from Jim Allen, President/CEO of the New York Apple Association, who compared and contrasted the two associations.

Then we heard from John R. Baillie of Jack T. Baillie Co., Baillie Family Farms and Tri-County Packing, whose letter, focusing on effective policy advocacy, was featured in Pundit’s Mailbag — One-Voice Plea On PMA/United Merger Issue.

Dan’l Mackey Almy of DMA Solutions wrote us next and pointed out that one gets out of these associations whatever one puts into the associations. A thesis we reviewed in Pundit’s Mailbag – Profitable Participation.

We let the issue simmer for a while when the decision of the Western Growers Association to open a D.C. office raised issues regarding the representation of growers that struck at the core of the issues raised by a merger of United and PMA. We reviewed that in our piece entitled Pundit’s Mailbag – Bigger Picture For WGA’s DC Office.

We devoted the entire issue of July 20, 2007 to An Industry Discussion: Pros and Cons of A PMA/United Merger. In our discussion we mentioned three strong points in favor of merger and 10 strong points opposed. In doing so, we might have stumbled upon an explanation for why we have not had a merger.

Our analysis on July 20 brought a torrent of comments that we will be dealing with for some time. We printed two letters on July 24 pointing out the differences of opinion on these matters in Pundit’s Mailbag – Finding the Right Answers for Possible PMA and United Merger. Dick McKellogg of Lowe’s Food Stores told us that his primary interest is his customer, and a second letter came from a well-known industry leader who has worked the inside of this issue for some time.

The Mailbag on July 25 discussed reasons for PMA and United to remain separate with a letter from Frank McCarthy from Albert’s Organics, Pundit’s Mailbag — PMA And United Need To Remain Separate.

A United Fresh board member wrote to us on July 26. Our correspondent thought our readers might draw the conclusion that PMA performed international activities while United did not, and so sent us a letter in order to correct the record. See Pundit’s Mailbag — Getting The Facts Straight On United’s Global Outreach.

We’ve also dealt with topics that overlapped on the United/PMA merger discussion. Cool Compromise Shows Association Leadership But Battle Scars Remain was one such piece, as was another letter, which we dealt with in Pundit’s Mailbag — What Is The Best Model For industry Lobbying Efforts?

The Pundit’s Mailbag has continued to be busy. On July 31, we wrote A First-Step Suggestion for Merging PMA/United, in which Harris Cutler of Race-West Company suggested the creation of an interim group of representatives of each association to act as one cohesive voice.

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