When the North Island farm supply co-op Farmlands merged with South Island’s CRT the result was a cooperative with 54,000 members which has a name that clearly states what it is: Farmlands Cooperative.
In the Canadian dairy industry, Agropur and Farmers recently announced that they had successfully finalised the steps which will lead to the merger of the two cooperatives.
‘The new Agropur cooperative allows us to continue to produce and process our milk locally while benefiting from the advantages of being part of a larger national cooperative,’ said Jeannie van Dyk, chair of Farmers who milks 90 cows on her farm in Noel Shore, Nova Scotia.
She told Atlantic Cooperator magazine, “We have worked with Agropur for 25 to 30 years. We’ve done business together, we attend each other’s annual meetings, and we’ve worked on governance and communications together. We’re both co-ops, and over the years we’ve both have the vision of a larger, or national co-op.’
The new cooperative has 3404 dairy farmer members and 6000 employees who process 3.3 billion litres of milk a year in 28 plants in Canada and the USA. C$10 million has been committed to modernising the three former Farmers processing plants in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland over the next five years.
Following the merger, the newly enlarged Agropour now has a presence in markets all the way across Canada. “Its a real pooling of strength and activities, so it’s been quite a success and a learning experience, but a very positive one,” said Agropour spokesman Mac Labelle.
Agropour chair Serge Riendeau, a dairy farmer in Coaticook, Quebec, said, “this merger puts us in an excellent position to ensure the longevity of the dairy industry across Canada. It also allows our members to focus their efforts on marketing their milk through a major Canadian cooperative. That is the true spirit of cooperation.
“We do recognise that being a member of a co-op is important,’ said Jeannie van Dyk, ‘because it empowers us to work together. Both co-ops are 100 percent owned by their shareholders, who are dairy farmers.”
A minnow swallowed by a shark? Most definitely not.
• Ramsey Margolis is executive director of Cooperative Business New Zealand.
