The price crises in various agricultural sectors ((mainly milk and pigs) in recent years have made it clear how weak the bargaining positions of producers of agricultural products are vis-à-vis the processing companies. Against this background, producer organisations are accorded with great political importance, but a recent study has shown that they have so far been unable to meet these demands. Furthermore, scientific studies on cooperation in agriculture have so far mainly dealt with cooperatives and consider producer organisations merely as a special form of marketing cooperatives.
In this study we would therefore like to close existing gaps in our knowledge of the importance and function of producer organisations in Germany by taking a separate look at the producer organisations in the various sectors. Furthermore, we aim to identify starting points for improving the institutional support of producer organisations and, based on this, to develop recommendations for action and policy.
Among other things, we would like to analyse data collected by the IfLS for the main contractor Ecorys in the already completed project "Study on producer organisations in the product groups cereals, beef and olive oil", but which have not yet been evaluated separately for Germany.
In addition, an online survey of producer organisations is to cover further product groups and clarify questions arising from the previous literature search. The subsequent guideline-based interviews with experts will serve to verify the results and obtain further information.
Project no.: | 198 |
Categories: | Services | Research | Socio-economics of farm business | |
Client: | Rentenbank (development agency for agribusiness and rural areas) |
Executing Organization: | Institute for Rural Development Research (IfLS) |
Duration: | 2020 |
Contact person/s at IfLS: | Simone Sterly |
