Co-ops see strength grow
UK - British farmers, unlike many of their colleagues on mainland Europe, are notoriously individualistic. The ethos of co-operation has taken a long time to take root in the UK farming industry, but that appears to be changing, with Scotland very much punching above its weight.
12 July 2007
1 minute read
Yesterday the Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society (SAOS), which co-ordinates co-operation in Scotland on the rural front, released some highly encouraging figures.
The top line is that farming-related co-ops in the UK had a turnover last year of £4.4 billion, generating profits for the collective membership of £58.4 million. In Scotland, 80 co-ops notched up a turnover of £1.4 billion.
UK-wide, co-ops now have a membership of over 150,000 farmers, but many of those farmers are signed up to more than one mutual venture. A detailed breakdown of all the co-ops in the UK, and that includes CWS with a turnover of £8.5bn, shows that of the top 100 similar businesses, 57 are farming orientated.
Top of the league in the farmer-owned business table is the Glasgow-based First Milk, which has 2,800 members in Scotland, England and Wales with a turnover of over £500 million. That ranking places First Milk in seventh place in the UK league of co-ops. Not far behind is the Inverurie-based ANM Group, which has diversified considerably in recent years from its core business of livestock auctioneering and meat processing. Last year ANM had a turnover of just short of £265m.
