THE AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES IN ROMANIA: FROM CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK TO PROFITABLE LOCAL PRODUCTION
THE AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES IN ROMANIA: FROM CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK TO PROFITABLE LOCAL PRODUCTION

Summary/Abstract: More than 20 years ago, the agricultural cooperatives represented an economic engine of local development in Romania. Variations in demography and legislation can be considered factors in the change of direction within the agricultural sector (young people moving from rural to urban areas; the existence of two specific legal regulations for agricultural cooperatives). In 2013, the Romanian Institute of Social Economy (IES) announced that in 2010 there were approximately 150 agricultural cooperatives in Romania. Still, IES is very optimistic about the great potential of agricultural cooperatives for economic development at local level. They argue that due the current implementation of EU legislation, Romania has to take advantage of important financial support in agricultural sector. Thus, the current percentage of 37% of population working in agriculture is expected to increase and to spur the rebirth of the “old-fashioned” agricultural cooperatives. Through the spectrum of the current research, the authors address the problem of insufficiency in the exploitation of the local products in the agricultural sector. The paper aims at describing the conceptual framework of agricultural cooperatives in Romania and at identifying ways to profit from the local production within this framework.

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