Co-operation and Collaboration – Co-ops Across the World (their future role) (webinar)

The benefits of co-operation are well-evidenced. Co-operation involves farmers and others, working together to achieve a commercial objective, which they cannot achieve independently and individually. Through co-operation, members help themselves, pro-actively taking responsibility for generating value and sustainable services in which they have a common purpose.

To showcase the benefits of increased co-operation and collaboration we have brought together a range of expert speakers and farmers actively participating in some form of co-operation to share their experiences.

The ‘Co-ops across the World (their future role)’ webinar will be chaired by Kerry Hammond from SAC Consulting. Our guest speakers are Robert Logan from SAOS, a specialist on Farmer co-operation and supply chain collaboration; George Noble from SmartRural, a co-operative rural connectivity and data business; TJ Flanagan, CEO, ICOS, who have seen great success in large scale dairy and other co-ops in Ireland.

This final webinar explores the scale of opportunity for producers by looking at successes and lessons from further afield, with agricultural co-op examples from across the UK, Europe and the globe. We will explore examples that also include opportunities for new farmer-led developments here in Scotland, including new crops and services. This is complimented by the near-hand experiences from Ireland, where agri-co-op participation rates are some three times here in Scotland, where nearly every farm is involved in some form of co-operation and/or formal cooperative. Ireland is home to a few highly adapted businesses that are also world renowned agricultural co-ops.