Queenswood Growers Cooperative.
The name was stamped clearly on the documents Harry Montis had prepared. They were the official registration papers to be submitted to the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Chloe picked up the pen and looked at the signature line. Chairperson. The title attached beside her name still felt unfamiliar.
“What are you staring at like that?”
Thomas, standing beside her, asked.
“...It still doesn’t feel real, being chairperson.”
“It’ll feel real once you sign.”
Chloe gave a small laugh, put the pen to the signature line, and wrote her name neatly. Then she set the pen down and said,
“I’ll be counting on you, sir.”
“I’ll be counting on you too, Chairperson.”
Thomas, stepping into a new era, laughed lightly. Chloe scratched her head awkwardly and handed the papers to Harry.
“What’s the next step now?”
Harry skimmed through the documents, gave a faint nod, and said,
“Once we file them with the state, the registration certificate should be issued within two weeks. After that, we draft the cooperative bylaws, organize the member roster, and open a joint account, in that order. It isn’t as complicated as you might think.”
“Then we can finish everything before harvest.”
“More than enough time.”
The establishment of the cooperative was completed just like that, but preparations for harvest were more
complicated than expected.
The single hydro-cooling unit on Chloe’s farm could not handle the harvest from five farms at the same time. Cherries had to have their core temperature brought down to two degrees within an hour of being picked. If that golden window was missed, no matter how well they were packed with MAP, their quality would drop by the time they arrived in Japan.
I had contacted Cascade Cooling in advance and signed a contract to lease two additional mobile hydro-coolers. The cost was not insignificant, but since the volume had already been sold through a futures contract, the profit calculations still worked out well enough.
The problem was where to place the equipment and how to arrange the harvest order.
It was three days after the withdrawal notices had been sent that Chloe gathered the cooperative members in the Harris Farm conference room. It was Queenswood Growers’ first official working meeting.
“Come in.”
When Chloe opened the conference room door, Thomas, Dexter, Jim, Ray, and Carl entered one after another. Watching the five of them sit around the table, Chloe felt a strange emotion she couldn’t quite name. Pride, and also a sense of burden, and yet a subtle straightening of her shoulders... The thought that she had to lead these people and grow the cooperative made her feel, once again, as if she had become a real adult.
“First of all, thank you for having the courage to join this new cooperative centered around me. To be honest, I did wonder whether we really had to go as far as creating a new cooperative, but while negotiating on a large scale with the Zen-Noh Group this time, I truly felt the power of a cooperative. Once we negotiated with a large volume of cherries behind us, our bargaining power with the distributor was completely different.”
Those present nodded with satisfied smiles. They were pleased enough that their cherries had increased their bargaining power and earned them a higher unit price.
“First, harvest is right in front of us, so let’s deal with the urgent matters.”
Chloe then spread a map of Brentwood across the table. It marked the location, acreage, and expected yield of each farm.
“First, we need to decide the order of harvest. We have three hydro-coolers and five farms, so if we plan the order properly, we can run efficiently without moving the equipment around too much.”
Ray looked down at the map and asked,
“Our farm has the largest acreage, so shouldn’t we start first?”
“That isn’t necessarily right. The harvest start dates aren’t all the same. Royal Tioga and Bing cherries ripen at different speeds, so the optimal harvest window differs by a few days from farm to farm.”
Chloe, who had prepared thoroughly, began explaining the expected harvest start date for each farm. Jim Ferguson’s farm would ripen first, Ray Coburn’s farm two days later, and Carl Meyer’s farm another two days after that. Thomas’s and Dexter’s farms had different variety compositions, so their schedules were set separately.
“Then we put two coolers on Jim’s farm first, and once his harvest is mostly finished, we move them to Ray’s farm. Carl’s farm will share one in the meantime.”
Carl, who had been listening calmly, tilted his head.
“Will one be enough for our farm’s volume?”
“Your farm is relatively small, so it’s possible. Instead, you’ll need more labor, and we’ll send over some of our farmhands to help.”
The people who had been sitting awkwardly at first began looking over the map and offering various opinions. Dexter explained the harvest flow on his farm, and Thomas added to it. Jim asked about the route for moving the equipment, and Ray brought up the issue of securing workers.
Chloe listened to their discussion and took notes bit by bit. It did not have to be a perfect plan. The very fact that these people were sitting at the same table, looking in the same direction, and talking was itself the beginning.
When the meeting had mostly wrapped up, Chloe folded the map and said,
“And there’s one more thing I’d like to talk about. The variety replacement schedule. Once this year’s harvest ends, we’ll have to start in earnest, so I thought it would be good to have a concrete picture in advance of how we’re going to proceed.”
The reason these people had decided to join the new cooperative was to pursue variety replacement and overseas exports for long-term income growth. So setting the harvest schedule had been about handling the work immediately before them, but what she was about to discuss now was the real reason they had joined the cooperative.
Perhaps because of that, the eyes of the attending members began to shine brightly.
Chloe took a document from her bag and spread it on the table. It was a table organized by year.
“The five of you have a combined total of 800 acres. If we replace one-third of the total acreage step by step each year, the way our farm did, the entire replacement will be finished within three years. We’re not ripping everything out at once. We’ll maintain the Bing cherry harvest in the remaining sections while replacing the others, so your income won’t be completely cut off.”
Ray looked over the table and asked,
“After three years of replacement, when do the Royal Tiogas start coming in?”
“It takes four years from planting the saplings to the first normal harvest. So the trees planted in the first and second years will begin their first normal harvest in year five, and the entire acreage will start producing from year seven.”
“Seven years...”
Dexter frowned as soon as he heard it. It was certainly not a short time. Chloe pointed to the column on the right side of the table.
“I calculated it, and in year five, excluding me, the members’ combined acreage will begin its first normal harvest on 267 acres. If we estimate the yield at 2.5 tons per acre, that’s roughly 660 tons. Calculated at the current futures contract price of 1.8 dollars per pound, that comes to about 2.65 million dollars.”
“2.65 million dollars?”
Jim, tilting his head, narrowed his eyes.
“That’s additional income? Separate from the Bing cherry revenue?”
“Yes. While the replacement is in progress, the remaining Bing cherry sections will maintain the existing revenue, and the Royal Tioga revenue will be added on top of that. Of course, replacement costs and equipment usage fees will be deducted, but the structure still increases net profit. In year six...”
Chloe continued her explanation that way, and at the end, she said,
“If this goes as planned, then seven years from now, we’ll have switched to Royal Tioga and Coral Champagne worth more than three dollars per pound, so profits should be more than double what they are now.”
The room went quiet. Everyone looked at one another with faint smiles on their lips. Seven years was certainly a long time, but it was clear that if they endured it, it would be worth it.
Thomas, full of conviction, said,
“This picture is also why we left the cooperative. Under Hartford, we wouldn’t even have been able to start this.”
No one argued, and Chloe folded the document again.
“Of course, there’s no guarantee everything will go according to plan. Weather is a variable, and market conditions can change. But if we do nothing, then nothing will change for certain.”
Ray laughed softly.
“I feel like I’ve heard that somewhere before.” “I heard it too, from my boyfriend.”
The cooperative members soon began congratulating themselves on the formation of the cooperative and preparing for harvest. Because they were not alone, there was no fear on their faces despite having left the old cooperative.
That same evening, at Hartford Farm.
William Hartford summoned the remaining nine cooperative members to his farm’s conference room. Contrary to expectation, he was not agitated; rather, he was calmer than usual. Several documents lay on the table, with a cup of coffee placed before each seat.
“You’ve all heard the news, I’m sure?”
He looked around with sharp eyes as he spoke, but no one answered. They all knew.
“Five of them left. Even Ray.”
He paused for a moment. Then he turned over the documents on the table one by one and continued.
“I didn’t call you here today to threaten you. I called you to say just one thing. Let’s look at reality coldly. Now, it’s true that the Japanese market has become a hot topic. Royal Tioga being sold at a Ginza department store, and Zen-Noh shipping them directly by air, made the news. It looks glamorous. But look at the numbers.”
He tapped the document on the table with his index finger and continued explaining with a grave expression.
“Japan’s annual cherry imports exceed ten thousand tons. Do you know how much of that is premium volume shipped directly by air? Not even ten percent of the total. The other ninety percent is still ordinary cherries coming in by ship. And that ninety percent market is dominated by Bing cherries. That is the market we’re targeting. If you change the variety to Royal Tioga, it takes at least four years until the first harvest. For those four years, your income is cut in half. On top of that, Royal Tioga is far more difficult to cultivate than Bing cherries. If you fail to control moisture, the sugar content drops sharply, and it’s more vulnerable to diseases and pests. Do you think Harris Farm succeeded only because of the Royal Tioga variety?”
At that moment, one cooperative member asked cautiously,
“Then what was it because of?”
William pointed a finger into the air and spoke slowly.
“Because of Brian Choi. Harris Farm succeeded because that man supported them technically from behind the scenes. Without him, do you think Chloe could have run that farm like this on her own? And do you think the five farms that left can maintain that technology independently without Brian Choi?”
Silence flowed through the conference room.
“I looked into it, and Chloe apparently also has a pear farm in Lodi. They say the pears actually brought in even more revenue than the cherries. They said it was a pear variety that didn’t exist in America before, so who do you think taught her that? Brian Choi of Napa Valley. I don’t know if you know this, but anyone who knows wine cannot not know Redwood Winery of Napa Valley. Do you?”
One of the cooperative members raised his hand.
“It’s a new winery that rose to the top of Napa Valley in less than ten years. Brian Choi is... practically recognized as one of the best winemakers in America...”
“That’s right. Think about it. Brian Choi is a man obsessed with making and selling wine. Since it was his close girlfriend’s farm, he might have helped her even if it was a hassle, but would he really help complete strangers farm? We all know, don’t we? How hard farming is.”
Everyone nodded.
“When you look at those who left now, they say this year’s volume has been taken care of through a futures contract. Fine, they may be able to smile this year. But what about next year? Where is the guarantee that they’ll sign contracts under the same terms next year too? Distributors sign contracts when it benefits them, and cut them off when it doesn’t. That’s business.”
He slowly looked around at the cooperative members and continued.
“By contrast, our cooperative has done business with Costco and Walmart for decades. That trust isn’t built overnight. Even if individual farms waver, if you’re inside the fence of the cooperative, at the very least you won’t
starve. The people who threw that away and left may want to come back in a year or two, but by then, there will be no place for them to return to.”
A heavy silence settled over the conference room. Not a single thing he had said was wrong. No one could guarantee whether Queenswood Growers could truly endure without the active help of the farming genius named Brian Choi.
“I know how deeply attached all of you are to your land. That is why you must be cautious.”
At that moment, one cooperative member asked in a low voice,
“...Then what should we do?”
As if he had been waiting for it, William slowly lifted his coffee cup and said,
“Do what we’ve always done. Raise the quality of our Bing cherries and maintain the cooperative’s volume stably. It may not be glamorous, but that’s how we’ve survived for thirty years.”
His answer was relaxed, but the remaining cooperative members failed to notice that William’s hand, leisurely holding the teacup, was trembling ever so slightly.