INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATIVES

This article was contributed by New South Wales Fair Trading, Department of Finance and Services.

The International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) defines a co-operative as “... an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations, through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise ...”.

The ICA reports that over one billion people are members of co-operatives worldwide and that those co-operatives provide over 100 million jobs around the world. This compares to 328 million people who own shares traded on stock markets (Co-operatives UK, 2012). The largest 300 co-operatives in the world are together worth 1.6 trillion US dollars, equivalent to the GDP of the ninth largest economy in the world: Spain.

Large segments of the populations of some countries are members of co-operatives and they contribute significantly to national economies, either through direct employment or economic activity. <Endnote 1>

For example, ICA statistics <Endnote 2> show the following:

a) National co-operative membership

• Around 40% of Canadians are members of at least one co-operative.
• Finland’s S-Group’s membership represents over 60% of Finnish households.
• Almost 40% of the French population are members of one or more co-operatives; three-quarters of all French agricultural producers are members of at least one co-operative and one-third of French people are members of a co-operative bank.
• In India, over 239 million people are members of a co-operative.
• In New Zealand, 40% of the adult population are members of co-operatives and mutuals.
• Half of the Singaporean population are members of a co-operative.

b) Employment in co-operatives

• In France, 21,000 co-operatives provide over 1 million jobs representing 3.5% of the active working population.
• In Germany, 8,106 co-operatives provide jobs for 440,000 people.
• In Iran, co-operatives have created and maintain 1.5 million jobs.
• In Italy, 70,400 co-operatives employed nearly 1 million people in 2005.
• In Spain, co-operatives provided jobs to 22% of the labour market in 2007.
• In the United States of America, 30,000 co-operatives provide more than 2 million jobs.

c) Co-operative economic activity

• Canadian maple sugar co-operatives produce 35% of the world’s maple sugar production.
• In France, the co-operative movement has a turnover of 181 billion Euros. Co-operatives handle 60% of retail banking, 40% of food and agricultural production and 25% of retail sales.
• In Japan, agricultural co-operatives report outputs of US$90 billion, with 91% of all Japanese farmers in membership.
• In New Zealand, 3% of gross domestic product is generated by co-operative enterprises, which are responsible for 95% of the dairy market (and 95% of the export dairy market). Co-operatives hold 70% of the meat market, 60% of the farm supply market, 80% of the fertiliser market, 75% of wholesale pharmaceuticals, and 67% of the grocery market.
• The 30,000 co-operatives in the United States of America operate 73,000 places of business and own over US$3 trillion in assets, generating over US$500 billion in revenue.

INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATIVE ENTITIES

All co-operatives remain people-centred organisations that are owned, controlled and used by their members to benefit members. Co-operatives generally follow the seven co-operative principles shown in figure 2 at the start of this article.

In Australia, a co-operative is an entity based on sharing, democracy and delegation for the benefit of all its members. A general co-operative, in a legal sense, can be currently defined as “... any organisation that is incorporated as a co-operative under state or territory legislation”.<Endnote 3> However, from 2012, the incoming Co-operatives National Law will replace the separate state and territory legislation with a single national law.

Similarly, international co-operatives are business enterprises where ownership, control and benefits remain in the hands of the co-operative members, <Endnote 4> although the legal entities can vary from country to country.<Endnote 5>


ENDNOTES

1. International Co-operative Alliance. <Back>
2. International Co-operative Alliance. <Back>
3. Our Community. <Back>
4. International Co-operative Alliance. <Back>
5. Source: Wikipedia, Cooperatives as legal entities. <Back>