Integration, Innovation and Internationalization are the future of Cooperatives

Hello! In this week’s article I want to discuss the three fundamental topics that were the central axis of the VII Congress of Agro-Food Cooperatives of Spain that was held this year in the city of Valencia: Integration, Innovation and Internationalization.

It was already announced in our news section that our president Juan Rafael Portero attended this event on behalf of Bodegas La Aurora.

This meeting, which brought together more than a thousand people from the Spanish and European agri-food sector, had participants as important as the European Commissioner for Agriculture and the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Environment of Spain.

Given the importance of this event and the points that were discussed, I am going to dedicate today’s article to giving my point of view on these topics, as always, I encourage you that if you have something to contribute or debate, do so through from the comments field that you will find at the end.

Integration

Integration could be said to be a word synonymous with union, it has always been said that: “Unity is strength” and I think that is the message that we wanted to convey in this congress.

With the integration of all cooperatives or the greatest number of cooperatives by sector or region, much more pressure is achieved on any issue.

It is not the same as 1,000 people demanding a fairer price as 10,000.

The basis of the future of Spanish Cooperatives, and I think that of any part of the world, lies in the integration and union of the greatest number of Cooperatives possible to make their proposals go much further.

Innovation

This topic has already been discussed in this blog, I leave the link here in case you want to read it.

I have always been a firm defender of innovation and new technologies applied to the field or any sector.

I recognize that innovation has two sides, one good for the producer because it saves costs and another not so good because it involves less labor.

I would like you to reflect for a moment and tell me if you think it is good to have heating in your house, if it seems right that you can carry out any operation from your mobile phone or if you like your car to notify you when it is almost time to hit.

All these advances have been achieved with innovation and technology.

The prices of farm products are so low that it needs to innovate to use less labor.

Cooperatives must also innovate to make their products more profitable; they cannot and should not remain stuck in the past because of the fear of this word.

Internationalization

The last point is no less important than the previous two, internationalization is something that Cooperatives must increasingly take into account.

We are not able to consume what we produce, so we must sell it outside our borders.

There are many countries that need and want our products and are not capable of producing them, which is why we must establish relationships and internationalize them.

Cooperatives must think that there is life outside the Spanish borders, they must adapt to the new times that an increasingly globalized world brings us.

The future of Spanish Cooperatives involves managing to unite and take advantage of these three actions: Integration, Innovation and Internationalization.

Before finishing I want to acknowledge that it is a complicated and delicate topic to deal with, but in many cases we have to be decisive. Greetings and see you next week!

By Rafael Espejo.