Examples of cooperation among farmers to support businesses’ income and resilience

This compendium presents a selection of examples showcasing how cooperation can strengthen business incomes and build resilience. Members of the Thematic Group (TG) on Unlocking the Potential of Cooperation contributed a range of cases that highlight the benefits of sharing resources, collaborating, and engaging with other businesses and stakeholders through various forms of cooperation to overcome common challenges.

The examples illustrate how farm businesses establish informal or formal partnerships (such as cooperatives, producer organisations or EIP-AGRI Operational Groups) to improve production processes, increase bargaining power and gain better access to markets. They also demonstrate how short supply chains can be created to promote high-quality, environmentally friendly products.

Furthermore, the cases show how pooling resources can facilitate access to advisory services and funding, build capacity, and create new business models. All of the above are key elements of farm development that individual farms would find difficult to achieve on their own.

The TG’s overall aim was to explore success factors for unlocking the potential of cooperation within the CAP framework to enhance competitiveness, resilience and growth, particularly for small farmers.

Meetings provided opportunities for members to share experiences and examples of how farm-based businesses are leveraging cooperation to address farming vulnerabilities. This was the topic of another TG, which also produced a dedicated compendium of good practices.”