Co-operative News - Netherlands

Farmers of Maha undertake foreign trips

Ajay Jha — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 02:02:58 +0000

In a departure from the tradition in which cooperative leaders travel abroad in business class to attend even insignificant cooperative programmes , farmers of the state of Maharashtra have begun to undertake foreign trips to apprise themselves with latest developments.

Over 150 farmers from Maharashtra recently visited some of the most advanced countries of Europe to acquaint themselves with the latest methods being used in agriculture. They visited milk and cheese processing units in Holland and saw at close quarters the applications of solar and other unconventional forms of energy in Germany.

The Maharashtra govt is partly footing the bill of the foreign trip. Sources say some more farmers would soon be going to Europe on their learning trip.

Sources add batches of farmers would also be sent to some of the non-European countries soon. A substantial fund has been earmarked for the purpose by the govt.

According to agriculture minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, such trips would provide farmers with the information about the latest tecniques and methods being used in agricultural field across the world and thus help them improve their own farming operations.

Big thanks to these co-ops

AnthonyMurray — Mon, 28 May 2012 14:10:07 +0000

The ICA would like to extend warm and sincere thanks to the following co-operatives from all around the world who have all donated to the ICA’s Global Appeal for the International Year of Co-operatives:

Belarussian Republican Union of Consumer Societies (BELKOOPSOYUZ) - BELARUS

Co-operative Central Bank Ltd. (CCB) - CYPRUS

SOK Corporation - FINLAND

Confederation Générale des Scop - FRANCE

Zentralverband deutscher Konsumgenossenschaften e.V. (ZdK) - GERMANY

Lega Nazionale delle Cooperative e Mutue (Legacoop) - ITALY

Lithuanian Union of Co-operative Societies (LITCOOPUNION) - LITHUANIA

Oikocredit, Ecumenical Development Co-operative Society U.A. - NETHERLANDS

National Auditing Union of Workers’ Co-operatives (NAUWC) - POLAND

National Union of Handicraft and Production Co-operatives of Romania (UCECOM) - ROMANIA

Riksbyggen (Co-operative Housing Union) - SWEDEN

Union of Sugar Beet Growers’ Production Co-operative (Pankobirlik) - TURKEY

Central Union of Consumer Societies of Ukraine (UKOOPSPILKA) - UKRAINE

Belarussian Republican Union of Consumer Societies (BELKOOPSOYUZ)

To find out how you can support the ICA’s appeal to raise public awareness of the International Year of Co-operatives visit our website.

Top 100 Dutch co-operatives revealed

Emily Barker — Tue, 08 May 2012 08:01:54 +0000

The Dutch Cooperative Council has released a list of its top 100 co-operatives.

The list has been released as part of a study into the importance of co-operatives in the Dutch economy called Coöperatie+.

It is called the Dutch Cooperative Top 100 and each co-operative is ranked by turnover for the 2011 or 2010 trading year.

The list includes the name of the cooperative, the economic sector, the number of FTE and the number of members.

The top five co-ops listed are: Achmea, the Rabobank Group, Coöperatie VGZ, Friesland Campina, and the CZ Group.

The 100 co-operatives combined had a turnover of over 108 billion euros, employed 156,000 people and are owned by nearly 24 million members.

The Netherlands is known for its large cooperatives, especially in agriculture and horticulture, banking and insurance, but there are also many starting up in care, energy and education.

The website www.jaarvandecooperatie.nl also shows the European Agribusiness Cooperative Top 100.

We’ve come a long way together

AlisonGrant — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:44:12 +0000

Today marks ICMIF’s 90th anniversary.

On April, 25, 1922, 12 delegates from five insurance cooperatives met in the offices of the Lega Cooperativa in Rome. Mr Joseph Lemaire, Chief Executive of La Prévoyance Sociale in Belgium, had called the meeting of these cooperatives; all of whom were members of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA). The organisations present were: La Prévoyance Sociale (now P&V Group), Belgium; Folket, and Samarbete (now Folksam), Sweden; La Centrale Arbeiders Verzekerings en Depositobank (now SNS Reaal), Netherlands; Lega Cooperativa insurance office (now Unipol Group), Italy and L’Assurance Ouvrière, France (We cannot find what happened to this organisation so any information or assistance from members on this would be gratefully received).

During the first meeting, the Chair, Joseph Lemaire, made the following resolution “By virtue of the principles of international solidarity brought together at the conference in Rome, the representatives of the cooperative or workers’ life and fire insurance companies resolve to form a study committee which will manage a permanent information service for member societies present and future. The mission of this committee is to give a report at the next conference on the constitution of an International body of workers’ cooperative societies for reinsurance.”

This ‘International body of workers’ cooperative societies for reinsurance’ is the organisation that we know today as the International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation (ICMIF) and the above five organisations were the original members. The original organisation was to be an ‘information service’ for its members with a focus on reinsurance. How appropriate it is therefore that our reinsurance group is meeting next week in Paris at the Meeting of Reinsurance Officials (MORO) with a record number of attendees. The founders would be delighted that reinsurance continues to be central to ICMIF’s work.

As with everything in life we all want to know where we came from. Tom Peters, a management guru, often mentions that you only need to look at the reason an organisation was founded to find its mission and values and these rarely change.

And so to commemorate our 90th birthday we have decided that this year we are developing an online timeline spanning our 90 years of service and collaboration with our members. We’ll share more about this later this year as we are still in the planning stages, but can share with you that the timeline will be interactive and inclusive for all members to both add to and learn from. We hope that you will get involved and also have some fun along the way!

And so to ICMIF today. Never have we been more relevant for the global insurance market. We remain committed and passionate in supporting our member organization’s reinsurance needs. However, we are now so much more than that. We have evolved because of our great relationships with our members and also by having great people working at the Federation.

We can’t possibly list the many invaluable contributions of everyone at ICMIF in this post but we can say that every member of the ICMIF team should be very proud of the work they do.

One example that we would like to share with you is that of Sabbir Patel, our Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President, Development, and his team who have been working incredibly hard to support and help grow Takaful insurance and Microinsurance. What a fantastic mission for ICMIF! Sabbir has been featured twice during the last month in Insurance Day magazine who commended the value of Sabbir’s contribution to the sector and we couldn’t agree more. The articles are below for you to download and enjoy.

Also, our Vice President, Shared Intelligence, Faye Lageu has been invited to work with the United Nations to join an elite working group where she will share her expert knowledge of the use of Corporate Social Responsibility in our sector. This is a huge honour and we are thrilled for Faye who has her first meeting with the UN in June this year.

In our communications team our Vice President of Communications and Head of Digital, Mark McGee, has just submitted his final dissertation, signalling his completion of his Masters Degree in Digital Marketing Communications. Again, this is a huge achievement and one which ICMIF has been benefiting from since Mark started working towards this important goal. And finally we are delighted to report that we have upgraded our ICMIF TV studios and will now offer an even better interview environment for our members when they visit us in Cheshire, UK, and for that we must thank Andy Shaw, Vice President, Technology, for making this possible and on a very small budget.

We hope you will agree that ICMIF, its Secretariat and all our valued members have a lot to celebrate today. We truly have come a long way together.

Insurance Day Articles (English) (pdf, 3.12 MB)

How co-operative banks build a sustainable world

AnthonyMurray — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 13:41:42 +0000

Co-operative banks will connect with academics and stakeholders at the European Co-operative week in Brussels next week (25 April).

The main subject of discussion will be the role of co-operative banks in a more sustainable and inclusive growth in the world.

What do speakers expect from the event? Professor Giovanni Ferri, from the Department of Economical Sciences, University of Bari, Italy, talks to the News about his expectancy from the discussion.

“I hope we’ll make a step to give a new attention to co-operative economy”, he says, “after the economical crisis, we need to think of a new model of development and co-operatives can be the solution or the alternative to an economy based on idolatry of capitalization.”

Cooperative economy, according to Prof. Ferri, can be an emergency exit but also a way to peg the market.

The panel of discussion will also hear from policy decision makers. “We have to change the mind-frame”, emphasized Prof. Ferri, “and give up the idea that co-operatives are a form of anti-economy; this reality should influence policy decisions.”

According to the Professor, the cooperative economy may be able to guarantee a sustainable and inclusive growth characterized by a model of development in respect of criteria of sustainability, of environment, with a particular responsibility towards future generations and inclusive of all parts of society.

Also speaking at the one-day conference, which will look at how co-operative banks are different from the other banks, will be Piet Moerland, Chairman, Rabobank Group Executive Board, and President, European Association of Co-operative Banks.

From the European Parliament, Sven Giegold, MEP, Committee on Economic & Monetary Affairs, will discuss how co-operative banks operate in the social economy.

• The full programme for the conference is listed below. For more information on Co-operative Week, visit: http://www.coopseurope.coop/2012-coops-year/co-operative-week

12th January 2012 : Marking the start of the International Year of Co-operatives

MirkoNodari — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:38:39 +0000

Co-operative enterprises are businesses done by their members, for their members and to their members. Simply put, co-operative enterprises are good for everyone.

Yet, in spite of the current global social and economical challenges, the role of co-operatives has been overlooked. In response to this, co-operatives set out to give a wake-up call once with the start of the new year.

On the 12th of January 2012 co-operatives want to unite their voices and mark the start of the International Year of Cooperatives. Only by co-operating we can be more powerful and achieve our goals. Only by being together we can change the future. So join us on 12th January and let everyone know that the International Year of Cooperatives has started.

There are plenty of simple ways to celebrate the start of the Year. It can be putting up an International Year poster, handing out stickers to your customers, sending a press release to your local media, writing a blog, making a tweet or having a co-operative lunch with your colleagues, friends and family. Sharing the news with everybody is essential!

Co-operatives all over Europe and across the world will be marking the start of the Year in their own ways for 12 January. Cooperatives Europe, the ICA and many other co-operative organisations across Europe and the world are encouraging all members to join in celebrating the co-operative movement and mark the start of the Year on 12 January. If you are interested contact us: several of the countries and national committees involved are offering to share resources, for example, sample press releases.

So why not join with the global movement on 12 January and celebrate the start of 2012?

Expanding and developing the amazing power of financial cooperatives

Lyne Gagnon — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 09:17:00 +0000

In a recent report to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon highlighted the contribution of cooperatives to socio-economic development. The report, which illustrates the contributions of all cooperatives to the sustainable development of communities, also examines the impact of financial cooperatives worldwide. According to the report, cooperatives are present in all countries, an estimated 1 billion individuals are members of cooperatives worldwide, and cooperative activities account for between 3 and 10 per cent of national gross domestic product (GDP), depending on the country. Financial cooperative industry: 41% of worldwide cooperative economic activity Most cooperatives are located in developed countries, such as Germany, the United States, France, Japan, the Netherlands and Canada. They operate in a variety of sectors: 30% in agriculture and food 23% in retailing 22% in insurance (property and casualty, life and health) 19% in banking These numbers show that 41% of worldwide cooperative economic activity is carried out by the financial cooperative industry (the banking and insurance sectors combined). The UN report emphasizes the fact that financial cooperatives provide members with low-cost and readily accessible financial services, including reliable savings facilities tailored to members’ needs, credit or microfinance for small-scale start-up enterprises, and more affordable remittance networks. Financial cooperatives also offer financial services to populations underserved by the mainstream commercial sector and play an important role in achieving a more inclusive financial sector. Growth in the financial sector According to the report, “the recent financial crisis has generated renewed interest in alternative financial institutions, as financial cooperatives and credit unions have demonstrated a noteworthy resilience and even growth.” It goes on to say that some financial cooperatives and credit unions experienced an influx of deposit funds as members sought a safer location for their savings or lower fees, and these institutions sustained or increased their rates of lending when many other commercial institutions were retrenching. The report continues: “these outcomes indicate the importance of institutional diversity in the financial sector, demonstrate the advantages of alternative business models such as cooperatives, and point to how cooperatives can contribute to the stability of the broader financial system.” On a broader note, the report concludes: “institutionalized cooperation raised the scale of economic activity to a level that allowed for reduced operational cost and created enough pooled resources to accommodate technological expansion and shared marketing and quality control services (...). These cooperative networks provide an institutional response to increasing global competition and the need to accelerate the pace of innovation.” *************************** Did you know? Co-operatives represent 23% of the world’s insurance market. Source: The UK co-operative economy 2011 – Britain’s return to co-operation (Co-operative UK) ² *************************** Cooperatives in social development and implementation of the International Year of Cooperatives, Report of the Secretary-General, 66th session of the General Assembly, July 13, 2011 (PDF). The UK co-operative economy 2011 – Britain’s return to co-operation, Co-operatives UK, 2011 (PDF). Direct link (PDF): View

An Analysis of Fair Trade: Reflections from a Founder (Part III)

Rodney North — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:06:37 +0000

This is the third and final part of Rink Dickinson’s speech on the state of fair trade, delivered at the IRTF conference in Cleveland, Ohio on October 23rd.

The Trojan horse for plantations was tea.

An Analysis of Fair Trade: Reflections from a Founder (Part II)

Rodney North — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:42:55 +0000

Part II: Building Fair Trade Coffee: How and Why?

Let’s start with coffee. How did fair trade in coffee happen? How was this supply chain built? Who took the risk? Who benefitted? What can we learn from this history?

Pharmacists agree European charter

admin — Wed, 15 Oct 2003 23:00:00 +0000

THE Co-operative Group-owned National Co-operative Chemists (NCC) has helped establish a six-point charter with other pharmacy co-ops across Europe that will see new quality benchmarks for service and patient care.
The "Six Commitments" were approved and launched at the European Union of Social Pharmacies' (EUSP) annual conference, hosted by the NCC in Manchester.
Delegates from Belgium, France, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland and the UK ? which between them operate over 2,300 pharmacies ? attended the annual conference at the Co-operative Group's headquarters.