Abstract:
The agricultural cooperative system from the countries with a market economy displayed from the very beginning a
large diversity, according to the specificity of agriculture, level of economic development, local traditions and market
development. As a result of a deep economic need, the Swedish agricultural cooperative system appeared at the end of
the XIX-th century, borrowing a great part of the Danish model. The first cooperatives set up in the Swedish agriculture
were those from the animal breeding sector, as a consequence of the development of the export of agri-food products to
England: dairies, cooperatives for eggs trading, slaughter houses–cooperatives. Afterwards appeared new sectors of
activity in the sphere of agricultural cooperative system, therefore cooperatives in the plants, forestry and agricultural
credit sectors have been set up. The majority of the Swedish agricultural cooperatives were focused on a unique
activity, fact that determined the farmers to take part to 4-5 cooperatives from different agricultural sub-sectors. In time
took place a process of cooperative merging and concentration, fact that determined the severe reduction of their
number, in the same time with the turnover increase. The most part of the agricultural production is harvested,
processed and traded by cooperatives, in the case of milk processing and trading, the market share being higher than
95%. Like in the majority of Western states, the structure of the Swedish cooperative system took a pyramidal shape,
being organized on 3 levels. The Swedish agricultural cooperatives take benefit from a specific law, and the minimum
number of members necessary to set up a cooperative is 3. In the decision making process, the principle "one person –
one vote" as well as "the proportional vote" are applied. The unique 100% Swedish cooperative that is with significant
international presence is Lantmännen supply cooperative. The majority of farmers who breed dairy cows are members
of the largest dairy-cooperative in Scandinavia – Arla Food, formed in the year 2000 by the merging of the Swedish
dairy cooperative Arla with the Danish MD Food cooperative with the same profile.
