Global Cooperatives and Adaptation to Changing Markets

Production cooperatives have been a significant way of production in our world since the 1800s. Especially in the agricultural sector, they help decrease the production costs and increase the profits of their members by promoting cooperation and sharing. The question, however, is if cooperatives can be an alternative and sustainable way of production. This paper investigated whether production cooperatives can adjust to changes in the global markets and, if so, how they do. Cooperatives in different countries around the world are compared individually by using qualitative and quantitative evidence from the past, such as cooperatives’ adjustments to fluctuating global prices, changing legal structures, and the political environment. Examples include changing regulatory structures due to new agreements between countries, rapid changes in global prices of goods due to supply or demand socks, and changes in political support to cooperatives over time. The unique structure of the cooperative model and its benefits for adjusting to global and domestic changes is discussed. My work included the analysis and comparison of cooperatives in over ten countries, and a more detailed analysis of a single country that was picked due to its significant history of cooperatives. Historical examples of production cooperatives in countries like Bulgaria or Turkey suggest that cooperatives are relatively well in adapting to changes in the global markets, compared to individual producers, thanks to its unique structure of production in capitalist markets. It is concluded that production cooperatives can be a good way of production in free markets as they are not only successful at adapting to changes in the global markets but also more democratic, sustainable, and profitable for their members.