Cooperatives a success in Murcia

AGRICULTURAL cooperatives are proving to be a success in the southern Spanish region of Murcia, as newly released data has revealed.

Murcia’s cooperatives produced a turnover of €860 million in 2013, 60 per cent of which came from exported goods.

There are a total of 140 cooperatives in the small region of Murcia, 4 per cent of the country’s total, and between them they produced 4.5 per cent of domestic turnover.

The Minister of Agriculture has compared Spain’s 3,800 cooperatives with Europe’s 30,000, and has called for a new model to improve agricultural supply and to provide greater access to the international market.

Murcia’s cooperative development has been impressive, with a total of just 24 cooperatives and 11 producer organisations in 1986. In under 30 years the sector has seen fantastic movement, and currently there are 140 coops and 102 producer organisations.

New policy to be considered for cooperative improvement and integration would try to see an increment in the volume of agricultural and horticultural goods produced, as well as increasing the number of growers and trade volume in the sector.