According to LLKC, in order to express the usefulness of cooperation in agriculture not only in words, but also in meaningful figures, the Erasmus+ project “Monetising the social value of agri-food cooperatives in rural Europe” (AgriCoopValue) in Latvia also plans to study the cooperative value calculation tool SPOLY. The calculation of the economic and social value of a cooperative is important because, unlike limited liability companies, joint stock companies and other traditional companies, the cooperative’s goal is not only to make a profit, but also to satisfy the interests of its members. The second important difference is that the cooperative belongs to all members and the more actively the members use it, the more they benefit from it. For instance, most members see the benefit of the cooperative in the price of the product they produce and sell through the cooperative. But the real contribution of the cooperative is much greater. Most clearly, the investments made, such as the processing plant set up by the cooperative’s grain dryer, which is owned by all members and also owned by all members, are also a measurable value in monetary terms. Therefore, the main objective of the project is to create a system for the application of a common social accounting method to agri-food cooperatives at European level in order to calculate the economic and social value of cooperatives and to profit from it. The project will train the technical staff and managers of agricultural and food cooperatives on how to use the SPOLY calculation method to profit from the cooperative’s social value. One of the tasks of the project through SPOLY is also to improve the image of European agricultural and food cooperatives, which would increase their competitiveness in an increasingly globalized market.
Follow the link to read the original article in Latvian: http://llkc.lv/lv/nozares/projekti/macisies-aprekinat-lauksaimniecibas-kooperativa-vertibu