engleski

Cooperative organization as a factor of competitiveness and sustainability in Croatian agriculture

Low competitiveness of Croatian agriculture and poor positioning on the EU market is the result of a number of constraints such as possession of a small and fragmented land parcels, undeveloped market infrastructure, low technological level of production, etc. Numerous constraints such as possession of small and fragmented land parcels, undeveloped market infrastructure and low technological production level resulted with low competitiveness and poor positioning of Croatian agriculture on the EU market. In such circumstances, one of the basic prerequisities for increasing the competitiveness of domestic agriculture is a production and market cooperation of family farms. Numerous experience around the World and EU show that cooperative entrepreneurship operate as a successful agricultural business model which contributing competitive position in the global food market and the bargaining strength power of farmers in food supply chains. Based on available data, the main objective of paper is to show and compare the actual situation of Croatian and EU agriculture cooperative sector considering the institutional and normative support environment. Comparing to others EU state member analysis showed marginal contribution of Croatian cooperative sector in the production, purchasing and transporting of agricultural products. Croatian cooperative legislation is regulated by EU standards but the financial and institutional support is insufficient to promote the qualitative development of agricultural cooperatives. In order to strengthen the competitiveness of agriculture sector Croatian government should be transparent in promoting cooperatives as a model of business organization of family farms.

agriculture; cooperatives; family farms; institutional support; Croatia

nije evidentirano