That was reported by Cooperative Development Department under the Ministry of Planning and Investment yesterday at an international workshop on agricultural cooperatives.
According to the agency, the country now has 19,569 cooperatives with over 6.2 million members.
Of the number, 10,762 are agricultural cooperatives accounting for 55 percent. Most of them have just supplied input services for production activities of households.
At the workshop, deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam stressed that the Cooperative Law effective since 2013 has created positive changes. Specifically, the operation efficiency of agricultural cooperatives has increased from 10 percent to 33 percent. Around 20.5 percent have operated under link chains.
Still, agricultural cooperatives are facing three challenges. Firstly, they might return back to old model waiting for the state’s assistance, running after economic efficiency and forgetting their social responsibilities.
The second challenge is from climate change and market pressure. The last one is the cooperatives’ internal challenge with little capital, small scale, technology shortage, leaders’ thinking and ability limitation.
