Original scientific paper
Agricultural Co-operative Movement in Croatia: Development and Core Issues
Željko Mataga
; Hrvatski poljoprivredni združni savez, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Abstract
The author analyses the development of agricultural co-operatives
in Croatia during an uninterrupted period of hundred and forty years,
starting with the founding of the first co-operative in Korčula in 1864.
Economical and social conditions in Croatian villages, during specific
historical periods, as well as the impact and the role of co-operatives
in agricultural development, and the development of the rural areas
per se may be examined based on rich historical materials. Starting
with the creation and the development of the first co-operatives as an expression of self organization following the appearance of capitalism which induced a concentration of capital and the establishment of powerful trade and bank institutions on one side
and the constant impoverishment, indebtedness, and proletarisation
of the farmers, after the abolition of serfdom on the other side. The
Croatian peasants start co-operatives on their own as a mean of
protection of their interests, the survival and the development of
their holdings: in order to ensure the financial capital necessary for
the purchase of holdings and the transactions in the merchant-monetary economy they establish mutual credit and saving co-operatives, and in order to evade high trade margins and profits,
they create purchasing and consumer co-operatives. In order to
avoid the blackmail of the food industry owners and their low prices
for the agricultural raw goods, they form manufacturing and processing agricultural co-operatives. The situation in the co-operative movement in Croatia is demonstrated through four
historical periods: up to the beginning of the First World War, in
between the two World Wars, after the second World War to 1990,
and from 1990. to 2004. Although during all of these historical periods co-operatives went through rises and falls, in 1945 they
lost their original principles and content. The co-operative transforms
from free and voluntary co-operation, based on the improvement
and the development of farming estates united in a co-operatives,
first to a state and later to a social institution, acting as an
instrument for coerced proletarisation of the farmers, having as
its main purpose "the socialization« of the agricultural production
in the farming holdings. Since the transitional process in co-operatives has not been undertaken even after the independence
of Croatia, the author is analyzing the current state of the Croatian
agricultural co-operatives, and is proposing the main strategic guidelines for the future development of the agricultural co-operatives. The guidelines are based on the well known advantages of the family farming holdings as main actors in the
agricultural production and the principles of co-operation such
as reciprocity, freedom of action, fair distribution that are successfully integrated in concrete forms of entrepreneurial
activities.
Keywords
co-operative; co-operative movement; family farming holding; co-operation; co-operative legislation; co-operative strategy
Hrčak ID:
31972
URI
Publication date:
4.2.2009.
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