Development of cooperation in dairy farming
2014
Polacenko, K., Latvian State Inst. of Agrarian Economics, Riga (Latvia). Dept. of Quality and Environmental Protection | Bugina, V., Latvian State Inst. of Agrarian Economics, Riga (Latvia). Dept. of Rural Development Evaluation
Dairy farming is one of the key industries of agriculture in Latvia with ancient traditions and its role in producing agricultural goods as well as generating the income for farmers has always played an important role. A large part of dairy farmers have united in cooperatives so the producers can better defend their interests in the market and increase their influence. In 2012, 28% of total number of agricultural cooperatives operated in dairy farming, while 26.9% of total amount of milk produced in Latvia was sold through cooperatives. The aim of the paper is to analyse the development of cooperation in Latvia’s dairy farming. The research identifies the key problems in dairy farming, explains the terms cooperation and cooperative society, and analyses the level of development of cooperation as well as provides the characteristics of the largest dairy cooperatives in the European Union (EU) and Latvia. The paper concludes that one of the ways how to raise the competitiveness of small farms is to foster cooperation among these farms; cooperation in dairy farming has successfully developed compared with other agricultural industries, which is evidenced by the changes in the number of cooperatives, the increase in the quantity of milk purchased by cooperatives, and the performance indicators of individual cooperatives.
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