Stuck in a rut: emerging cocoa cooperatives in Peru and the factors that influence their performance

Abstract

Agri-cooperatives play an important role in helping resource-poor farmers reach high-value markets. In addition to linking smallholders to markets, cooperatives provide their members with various services, such as extension, credit, input subsidies, and social programmes. While the literature contains many examples of success, there has been limited discussion on the often long and turbulent process by which cooperatives develop over time and the viable options for shortcuts. This study examines four emerging cocoa cooperatives in Peru to determine their overall business viability, the key factors that advanced their development, and their capacity to address the needs of their members. Our findings suggest that strategies for supporting cooperative development have largely failed to address major internal weaknesses and the challenges posed in the external environment. The cooperatives have received time-bound, uncoordinated, and often small-scale, interventions, which have focused on infrastructure expansion and technical assistance. Important areas related to business management and governance structures, trust relationships with buyers, and sufficient working capital have largely been ignored. Shortcuts may be achieved through improvements in access to business development and financial services, deeper engagement by private sector to support the development process, and commitment by stakeholders to monitoring and critical reflection for strategy refinement.

Unpacking ‘sustainable’ cocoa: do sustainability standards, development projects and policies address producer concerns in Indonesia, Cameroon and Peru?

“…Cooperatives in Ucayali face pressures to build their administrative capacity (Donovan et al 2017), expand and consolidate their supply base (often in the face of intensive local competition for cocoa from members) and search out new options to add value to cocoa beans through certification.…”

Antecedents of Financial Inclusion: Evidence from Tripura, India

“…As discussed above, the collaboration and joint efforts of government and financial institutions must process this information and understand the patterns in it to simplify the process of banking and disbursement of credit to the underprivileged populace. The principles of cooperative development can also be thought of in this direction (Donovan, Blare, & Poole, 2017). The process of disbursing credits to the underprivileged section in the society should be in synchronization with the government policies.…”

Food production and consumption in Bamyan Province, Afghanistan: the challenges of sustainability and seasonality for dietary diversity

“…Integrated and multi-sectoral approaches: When Afghanistan becomes more stable and prosperous, public investment is required for infrastructure, energy and communications technologies that will permit the development of viable local agribusiness and markets, and integrated delivery of development services (Donovan, Blare, & Poole, 2017;Gillebo & Hugo, 2006). Recent LANSA research has highlighted the importance of understanding the drivers of the enabling environment for improving the agri-nutrition environment (Gillespie et al, 2019).…”