EU 농업협동조합의 주요 이슈와 동향

Abstract

There have been waves of mergers in the cooperative sector, resulting in large regional cooperatives, for many decades. The motive behind these mergers is a desire to become competitive by running large scale of business. Cooperatives in European countries also strengthen their competitive power by purchasing other firms. And during the past several years, many cooperatives have also carried through radical changes in their organizational structure to improve the economy of their members by producing high value-added products. For examples many cooperatives have owned subsidiary firms in the form of PLCs, sometimes resulting from acquisitions, otherwise because part of the business operations have been separated from the mother cooperatives. The trading relations between the members and the cooperatives is getting more business- like. For instances, the farmers are more often subject to strict delivery conditions including mandatory delivery obligation regulated by cooperaives’ by-laws.In all countries and in most cooperatives, unallocated funds make up an important part of the equity capital. However this way of financing cooperative business may be problematic in an international business world. Hence, many cooperatives are inclined to invite non-member investors, thereby running the risk of losing control over the cooperative.Agricultural cooperatives in all European countries are involved in international marketing actives. Many cooperatives have established or bought production plants abroad to get a marketing channel for members’ products and to gain economies of scale, and to run businesses that supplement the operations in the home market.