Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 7, 1990 TAG: 9005070146
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: CANA LENGTH: Medium
The cooperative seemed an idea whose time had come back in 1967, when a group of Carroll County apple orchardists got a low-interest $250,000 loan from the Farmers Home Administration.
They used it to build a 20,000-square-foot metal building on property not far from the Virginia-North Carolina line and to buy equipment for packing and grading of apples for shipment.
"We shipped overseas, everywhere. It just flat got 'em out of the country," said Eldridge Boyd, one of the trustees.
The cooperative worked well for a while, drawing apples from Carroll and Patrick counties in Virginia and parts of North Carolina.
It charged growers 50 cents for every bushel they sent over the grader, and some other fees for other services. But it brought together enough apples to make it worthwhile for shippers to drive to Cana and transport them out of here on tractor-trailers that no single small grower could have attracted.
"A lot of times, there's people here until 2 and 3 o'clock in the morning, loading trucks," said Dennis McMillan, the co-op's secretary-treasurer, looking around at the still machinery and empty packing crates in the cavernous interior of the building. "It's really needed in the community because a lot of times, if we had the right type season, we could run 50,000 to 75,000 bushels."
The first financial problems came up during a bad season in the mid-1980s, when the co-op had to reamortize its loan. Last season hailstorms wiped out some apple crops; hurricane Hugo followed.
"I was hit by everything that was known to mankind, from windstorms to hailstorms . . . and then Hugo topped it off," Boyd said. "If we'd had good apples, it would've made the payments."
Practically all of last season's apples went into juice. "This year, the way it looks, we've only got 10 to 15 percent of a crop," he said.
"It's not going to bother us this year, because there aren't any apples," said Ray Fleming, co-op president. "This year you're not going to miss the co-op. When you have a full crop is when you're going to miss it."
"It's just a heck of a good facility to see it go down this way," agreed McMillan. "We'd have had enough apples last year if the hurricane hadn't come."
The co-op tried to reamortize its loan again but was told that regulations would not allow that a second time. About $130,000 is still owed on the debt. Although no date has been set, it appears that the facilities will be sold at public auction in the near future.
"If nothing changes, I'm afraid that's how it would end up," said Travis Jackson at the district Farmers Home Administration office in Wytheville.
Some of the co-op members tried to raise $10,000 each and make a deal about the loan, but were turned down.
"I could understand it if it was set up for a profit, but this is nonprofit altogether," McMillan said. "The thing was meant, if it was ever paid off, to be here in the community for future generations."
by CNB