The Importance of the Role of Agricultural Cooperatives in the Development of the Agricultural Sector: The Case of Greece (original) (raw)
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International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 2020
Cooperation and in addition the creation of cooperatives and cooperative companies in the agricultural sector influence the effort of small farmers to survive in conditions of increased competition. Farmers are in many cases considered "small" entrepreneurs compared to their counterparts in other sectors of the economy. Therefore, the need for survival leads most of the farmers to unite in order to gain bargaining power. Agricultural cooperatives were and remain the only mechanism for gaining bargaining power of small and weak producers, which is the main reason for creating cooperatives. Due to their historical process, we can understand their role in the development of the Greek economy. Finally, the study of their problems in last year’s presents the need for the planning of a modernized cooperative model, based on the most important principles of social economy.
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In recent years, Greece experiences a very intensive financial crisis that -as it is expectedhasimportant effects on the primary sector. ? new form of entrepreneurship for Greece,contract farming, appeared the last years. A successful case study of contract farming inGreece is between the large enterprise “ATHENIAN BREWERY” and the producersmembersof two agricultural cooperatives of Northern Greece. The main aim of this paperis to examine the process of contract farming through agricultural cooperatives.Specifically, this paper investigates the production process of malted barley throughcontracts of members of the cooperative of Epanomi and the cooperative of Trilofos, in thePrefecture of Thessaloniki (Northern Greece) and the private firm “ATHENIAN BREWERY”.Using a structured questionnaire that it was distributed in 132 producers- members of theagricultural cooperative of Epanomi or Trilofoss it was examined the advantages and thedisadvantages of this form of cooperation for both g...
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The role of agricultural cooperatives in supporting farmers has become increasingly important in the context of crises and unforeseen economic fluctuations, helping to improve their position in the value chain. If at the level of the European Union about 34% of farmers are part of agricultural cooperatives, in Romania only 1% are members in associative entities. The data indicate that the largest number of agricultural cooperatives is located in the North-East Region (a quarter of the total), especially in Botoșani County. However, analyzing the information on their economic activity, we found that a large part of them either never filed a balance sheet or submitted statements that they did not carry out economic activities. Of those who filed a balance sheet, half declared zero turnover. However, 57 agricultural cooperatives registered a profit for 2020 in the analyzed Region. In this paper, we aimed to identify the most profitable fields of activity for agricultural cooperatives in the North-East Development Region of Romania.
AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES IN THE ROMANIAN AGRI-FOOD SYSTEM
Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, 2023
In the recent years, agricultural markets and supply chains have been quite strongly affected, in an unprecedented geopolitical and economic context, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, climate change and the challenges of implementing the European Green Deal. Under these conditions, food has once again emerged as a central element of life, alongside health, and healthy eating for all depends more on social and economic conditions than on the technical aspects of food production and processing. Thus, the need to rethink and revalue local productions, supply chains and the links established at territorial level, in order to increase the resilience of agrifood systems and ensure their sustainable development, emerged. The cooperative model is considered to be suitable to address the challenges generated by transitions to sustainability, and agricultural cooperatives can significantly contribute to increasing the resilience of agri-food systems. Many agricultural cooperatives, from different countries of the world, have managed to adapt to the new situation, proving that they are important entities in the agri-food system. In this paper, we tried to identify some particularities regarding the changes in the cooperative system in Romania, in recent years, as a reaction to the challenges that the agri-food system has to face. For this purpose, we analysed the evolution of agricultural cooperatives before and after the COVID-19 pandemic and estimated the market share in different areas of activity with significant turnover, the evolution of some economic indicators, as well as their dynamics by counties and regions in an attempt to identify their development trends.
Because of the Greek economic crisis, almost all businesses are facing diffi cult times with severe consequences for employment and the whole economy. Responding to the economic crisis, the companies cut off investments, wages and reduced personnel. However, the companies have to adapt their business strategies to cope with the crisis. Th is paper conducts a strategic assessment of the Greek agricultural cooperatives during the fi rst half of 2013 using in-depth interviews with cooperative executives in order to illustrate how they have responded to the crisis and also to investigate their strategic options for the upcoming period. Th e results of the analysis show that agricultural cooperatives have chosen the retrenchment and cost-cutting strategies by restraining their activities while they appear eager to export their production. In addition, the cash shortage forced them to count exclusively on their members to fi nance any new economic activity. According to the cooperatives' executives, their adaption strategies exclude abandoning the activities and selling the equipment and their real estate properties, while they involve exports, the experienced personnel and marketing investments. Th ese results could provide helpful directions not only for the agricultural cooperatives' management boards but also for the food industry businesses operating under a severe economic situation such as the present Greek economic crisis.
Adaptation strategies for the Greek agricultural cooperatives during the economic crisis
Agricultural Economics (Zemědělská ekonomika), 2016
Because of the Greek economic crisis, almost all businesses are facing diffi cult times with severe consequences for employment and the whole economy. Responding to the economic crisis, the companies cut off investments, wages and reduced personnel. However, the companies have to adapt their business strategies to cope with the crisis. Th is paper conducts a strategic assessment of the Greek agricultural cooperatives during the fi rst half of 2013 using in-depth interviews with cooperative executives in order to illustrate how they have responded to the crisis and also to investigate their strategic options for the upcoming period. Th e results of the analysis show that agricultural cooperatives have chosen the retrenchment and cost-cutting strategies by restraining their activities while they appear eager to export their production. In addition, the cash shortage forced them to count exclusively on their members to fi nance any new economic activity. According to the cooperatives' executives, their adaption strategies exclude abandoning the activities and selling the equipment and their real estate properties, while they involve exports, the experienced personnel and marketing investments. Th ese results could provide helpful directions not only for the agricultural cooperatives' management boards but also for the food industry businesses operating under a severe economic situation such as the present Greek economic crisis.