With the break-down of the socialist regime in East Germany in 1989/90 the collective farms had to be transformed or to be dissolved. At that time, it had been anticipated by (mostly West German) politicians and agricultural economists alike that collective farms would soon wither away and be...

This paper examines the profitability of a balanced sample of 58 North Dakota farm supply and grain marketing cooperatives over the period 2003– 2007. Our findings reveal that increased liquidity tended to allow farm supply cooperatives to operate more efficiently, but reduced the...

This paper analyzes the challenges and opportunities for agricultural marketing cooperatives in value-added, quality-differentiated markets. Product quality in all of its dimensions is critical in modern food markets, but various traditional cooperative business practices are not conducive to...

The last two decades have seen major changes to the agricultural landscape in Canada and with them major changes to the co-operative sector. The grain handling co-operatives in Western Canada have disappeared, as have their counterparts in the dairy and poultry sectors. Outside of Western...

Vertical coordination in agri-food chains is a significant and increasing phenomenon in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC). It has been observed that this development prefers large scale production. However, the agricultural sector is still a mixture of small scale and large scale...

The Armenian dairy sector has until recently remained in a sub optimal equilibrium characterized by low quality milk, delayed payments, deep financial distress and a general lack of investment. The decision of the USDA MAP to expand their agribusiness programs into the dairy sector in 1999...

The limited exemption from antitrust legislation enjoyed by the Israeli agricultural sector enabled collective marketing of fish by aquaculture producers. The cartel-like organization of fish marketing raised concerns that fish growers exploited market power to the detriment of consumers and...

The dairy sector is one of the most critical sectors in Hungarian agriculture, where independent, privately owned farm organisations cannot countervail the market power of their business partners (processors). In theory, cooperatives and producers’ groups are able to strengthen the position of...

This study concerns the political, economic and socio-psychological conditions for marketing and supply cooperatives in Russian agriculture. An analysis of secondary data indicates that neither political nor economic conditions inhibit the development of cooperatives. Therefore, the focus is...

Insufficient access to rural credit institutions, the absence of marketing chains for agricultural products and limited application of advanced farming technology are the main development constraints in the Georgian agricultural sector. To research farmers’ demand for rural financial...