Support for farmers' cooperatives.

In order to foster the competitiveness of the food supply chain, the European Commission is committed to promote and facilitate the restructuring and consolidation of the agricultural sector by encouraging the creation of voluntary agricultural producer organisations. To support the policy making process DG Agriculture and Rural Development has launched a large study 'support of cooperatives' that will provide insights on successful cooperatives and producer organisations and that will investigate the effectiveness of support measures for cooperatives (and other producer organisations). The study is carried out by a large consortium managed by Wageningen UR's LEI and Wageningen University. HIVA-K.U.Leuven is country coordinator (for the collection and analysis of data in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, the UK and Ireland), collects and analysis data on Belgium and is methodological expert with respect to the analysis of the cultural, sociological and historical aspects that might have in influence on the performance of European farmers' cooperatives and the propensity of European farmers to cooperate.

Keywords:Cooperatives, Cooperation, Farmers, Policy measures, Europe, Producer organisations, Performance, Effectiveness