With its 5.042 active businesses, Italian agricultural cooperation guarantees employment for more than 93.400 employees and generates a turnover of almost 35 billion euros, equal to 23% of the value of Italian food, obtained through the processing and transformation of an equal to 37% of the Italian agricultural raw material, for a value of 19 billion euros.
These are the main numbers that emerged from the 2014 Report of the Observatory on Agricultural Cooperation, established by the Ministry of Agricultural Policies and supported by the Agci-Agrital, Fedagri-Confcooperative, Legacoop Agroalimentare and Unicoop organisations, which was presented today in Rome at the Cooperation Palace, in the presence of the Minister of Agricultural Policies Maurizio Martina.
The area of exports is also significant, with cooperatives representing 13% of total Italian agri-food exports, equal to 4 billion euros. But perhaps the most significant element concerns the economic performance of the cooperation which in 2013 recorded a +5,8% growth in turnover compared to the previous year, against a more contained +1,5% of the food sector in as a whole.
The president of the Alliance of Agri-food Cooperatives is satisfied with the picture that emerged Giorgio Mercury who - with regard to the good performance of the main macroeconomic indicators of the cooperatives - highlighted how this is precisely "the great merit that cooperation has had in recent years, namely that of directing the production of farms in a completely market-oriented perspective , nationally and abroad, making the most of the products contributed by the members”.
Also in the latest Report there is still a certain lack of homogeneity of the cooperative entrepreneurial fabric on the national territory: 45% of the cooperatives are based in Northern Italy and are capable of generating 82% of the total turnover against the 7% and 11% generated respectively by cooperatives in Central and Southern Italy; the average enterprise size is equal to 13 million euros for cooperatives in Northern Italy and just 2 million for those in the South, even if some signs of dimensional growth can also be seen in some regions of the South.
Cooperatives play a fundamental role in the valorisation of Made in Italy products both in Italy and on the foreign market: cooperative enterprises, in fact, process raw materials which 73% are of local origin, 26% are national and only 1% comes from abroad.
Meat, fruit and vegetables, milk and wine are confirmed as the main cooperative sectors thanks to the strong link with the agricultural production base. In these sectors, cooperative enterprises have become cases of excellence in the area and real big players at national and international level. Cooperatives are, in fact, sector leaders in wine, fresh and processed fruit and vegetables and poultry meat; they represent the largest segment of the production of denomination of origin cheeses and at the same time they are the main national players in the fresh milk sector, in which they compete with large foreign multinationals. These are cooperatives which, using the agricultural raw materials supplied by the agricultural members, realize 38% of their turnover from own-brand products and 15% from private labels.
“An important part of the cooperation is today part of the advanced food sector – he commented Ersilia DiTullio by Nomisma, scientific director of the Observatory – but at the same time holds firm to its solidarity goals, which differentiate it from joint-stock companies. The relationship with the shareholder is always privileged as indicated by a degree of mutuality equal to an average of 79%. However, there are further spaces for growth; today, thanks to its supplies of raw materials, Italian cooperation exploits 39% of national agricultural production. In other European countries, with a strong cooperative matrix, this share is higher, settling at 55% in France and 68% in the Netherlands”.
