Original scientific paper
Agricultural Co-operatives in the Republic of Slovenia
Franci Avsec
; Agricultural Co-operatives in the Republic of Slovenia
Abstract
The subject of this article is the process of transition and restructuring of agricultural co-operatives in Slovenia in the post-socialist period, the process which finished with the Slovenian
accession to the European Union. At first, the author presents a short
review of the basic characteristics of appearance and development
of agricultural co-operatives in Slovenia, and later he analyses the
changes in period after Slovenia gained independence and preparing
for accession to EU. At the begining of article we can see that the
co-operative societis, which in Slovenia was appeared in the early
19th century, have the important role in development of peasant
holdings, agriculture and villages till the forming of Kingdom of
Yugoslavia, when come to standstill and after that to the slowly recovery. While the history of the Slovenian agricultural cooperation
after the Second World War was characterised by frequent interventions of the State, after Slovenia gained independence n 1991, the government's role in this field has been limited to building
a suitable legal framework and to the regulation of specific solutions
in the privatisation process which were supposed to assure an appropriate starting point for co-operatives at the entrance in the
competitive, market economic system. In the recent years before
the Slovenian accession to the EU, the agricultural co-operatives
were able to obtain same state aid for their restructuring measures,
but this aid were not incomparable with the similar support for
agricultural holdings and food processing industry. Contrary to the
previous system, where numerous price and market subsidies for
the current production were provided to co-operatives and their
members, the agricultural subsidies after 1991 have been granted
to individuals and legal entities regardless of the production organizational form and are continuously shifting towards income
payments, i. e. away from the agricultural co-operatives, but also
from the market production. The data about the activities of agricultural co-operatives show that in recent years the number of
employed person s is decreasing, while the average income is
increased in this period. However, the concentration of agricultural
co-operatives is moving ahead far slower than in food processing
industry, and, above all, in retail trade. As the possible quantitative
growth of agricultural production will be limited in the future years, the agricultural co-operatives are heading an immense challenge
of consolidation of the membership base. improving the quality of existing products and introduction of new products to increase their
value added as well as further restructuring in order to improve their
bargaining position with processing industry and trade.
Keywords
agricultural co-operatives; cooperative law; denationalization; European Union; privatization; savings and Ioan services; Slovenia
Hrčak ID:
32873
URI
Publication date:
4.2.2009.
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