Development and Contemporary Characteristics of Agricultural Cooperatives in the Area of Croatia

Abstract

5U radu je pobliže razmotreno pulsiranje razvoja hrvatskoga zadrugarstva tijekom više od 150 godina duge tradicije njegova djelovanja, recentni razvojni trendovi i prostorno diferencirana razvijenost u suvremenom razdoblju. Rezultati pokazuju da je, unatoč dugoj tradiciji, hrvatsko zadrugarstvo u recentnom razdoblju suočeno s nizom razvojnih problema. Temeljni je uzrok takva stanja neodgovarajuća pravna regulativa -neusklađenost zakona o zadrugama i korelativnih zakona koji su relevantni za funkcioniranje zadružnoga poduzetništva, što se nepovoljno odražava na sve zadružne sektore, posebno na poljoprivredno zadrugarstvo kao njegov najrazvijeniji sektor. Rezultat je toga marginalan doprinos zadrugarstva gospodarsko-socijalnom razvoju demografski sve više destabiliziranih ruralnih područja države.Ključne riječi: zadrugarstvo, zadruge, poljoprivredne zadruge, Hrvatska, Europa This paper closely examines the fluctuations in development of agricultural cooperatives in Croatia during their 150-year-long tradition, as well as recent development trends, and spatially-differentiated development in the contemporary era. The results show that, despite the long tradition, contemporary Croatian cooperatives have been faced with a series of development problems. The main cause of that situation is inadequate legislation -a poorly adjusted law on cooperatives and correlative laws that are relevant for the functioning of cooperative entrepreneurship. This reflects unfavourably in all cooperative sectors, specifically agricultural cooperatives as its most developed sector. This has resulted in a marginal contribution of cooperatives to the socioeconomic development of the nation's demographically ever more destabilised rural areas. UvodSuvremeni ruralni prostor Hrvatske karakterizira više ili manje duboka kriza gospodarskoga, socijalnoga i demografskoga razvoja, koja se odražava u sve izrazitijoj atrofiji naseljenosti, posebno intenzivnoj u područjima ruralne periferije. O opsegu i dubini kriznih obilježja razvojnih procesa svjedoči podatak da se, prema postojećem indeksu razvijenosti, čak 58,2 % jedinica lokalne samouprave (upravnih gradova i općina) nalazi ispod praga od 75 % prosječne razvijenosti Hrvatske, od čega 10,5 % ispod praga od 50 % razvijenosti države.1 Pritom se -ovisno o geografskom položaju (posebno udaljenosti od razvijenijih gradova, kao žarišta prostornoga razvoja) te smjeru i intenzitetu razvojnih procesa -problemi i razvojni izgledi pojedinih jedinica lokalne samouprave znatno razlikuju. Te se razlike neposredno očituju u raznovrsnosti prostorne strukture, odnosno mozaičnom krajoliku ruralnih područja, a potkrjepljuje ih recentna tipologija ruralnih i urbaniziranih naselja Hrvatske (usp. Lukić, 2012).Negativni razvojni trendovi u ruralnim područjima uzročno su najuže povezani s krizom poljoprivrede, tradicionalno najvažnijom gospodarskom granom s nadređenim utjecajem na razvojne procese i stabilizaciju izvangradskih područja. Od početka tranzicijskoga razdoblja razvoj hrvatske poljoprivrede opterećen je ni...

Current challenges and future potentials of social economy in Croatia

“…Modern cooperatives in contemporary Croatia started to develop after the collapse of feudalism in the mid-19 th century. Before that, a type of so-called familial cooperatives existed in Croatia (Pejnović, 2016), but cooperatives in contemporary meaning of that term, started in Croatia on the island of Korčula with a creditsaving cooperative named 'Blagajna uzajamne veresije' 2 which was established in 1864 with the aim to provide a better financial framework for the development of agricultural and craft sector (Mataga, 2005). Cooperative members respected cooperative values and invested agreed amounts of money in their cooperative, which were then used to finance projects of cooperative members mostly in agricultural (fisheries, vineyard and agriculture) and craft sector on the island of Korčula at that time.…”

The influence of cooperatives on the regional and rural development of Croatia

“…The sharp drop of the number of cooperatives, members, and employees in cooperatives during 2012 is a consequence of harmonising the status of the cooperative sector with the new law, in relation to which half of the total number of cooperatives (2060), registered in 2011, ceased to exist (Stanojević, I.; Volić, B, Interview, as cited in Pejnović et al, 2016).…”

“…Thereby, their organisational forms changed and adjusted to concrete conditions of different socio-economic systems, from familial or household cooperatives, through fraternities of priests and lay people, to modern agricultural cooperatives in the 19th century (See: Mataga, 2014;Pejnović et al, 2016).…”

“…The most evident example of this kind of research is the paper on possibilities for encouraging development and sustainability of the Croatian economy through inclusion in agricultural cooperatives (Pešorda and Gregov, 2015). The paper on the development and contemporary characteristics of the agricultural cooperative system in Croatia is of a similar nature (Pejnović et al, 2016). The focus of their research is on developmental problems/limitations and possibilities, i.e.…”

Croatian co-operatives’ story of revival: overcoming internal obstacles

“…Moreover, the two views are very much inter-related, because in order to overcome external obstacles, a co-operative must often have internal strengths, 3 while overcoming internal weaknesses is usually much easier under favorable external conditions. Although there is considerable literature about the Croatian co-operative sector (Cvetko, 1908;Puljiz, 1992;Mataga, 1995Mataga, , 2005Borbaš and Mikšić, 2003;Petak, 2005;Defilippis, 2005;Matijašević, 2005;Tratnik et al, 2007;Babić and Račić, 2011;Golja and Novkovic, 2014;Novkovic and Golja, 2015;Stanojević, 2015;Pejnović et al, 2016;Vidović and Rakin, 2017;Nedanov and Žutinić, 2018;Đurkin Badurina and Kljaić Šebrek, 2018), some of which are actually comprehensive reviews (Mataga, 2009(Mataga, , 2014Pavličević, 2010;Broz and Švaljek, 2019), none of these studies, except our previously mentioned one (Božić et al, 2019), included systematic empirical qualitative research based on interviewing the leaders and members of co-operatives. Studies of co-operative sectors in the countries in Southeast Europe are also mostly reviews (Šoljić et al, 2005;Lambru and Petrescu, 2014;Avsec and Štromajer, 2015;Bojić and Vapa-Tankosić, 2015;Chroneos Krasavac and Petković, 2015).…”