An assessment of farming co-operatives in New Zealand

Abstract

The co-operative movement in New Zealand has been going for over 100 years. During this period of time there have been many notable achievements and also failures. One of the saddest aspects of this period is the lack of documentation. With my somewhat limited resources I will endeavour to do an assessment of farming co-operatives in New Zealand. I will highlight some of the strong points of the co-operative movement, some of the features, but also some of the weaknesses and pitfalls, as well as looking at the future trends of co-operatives and the co-operative movement generally. We will also look at the capital structure of various individual co-ops, taking into account the reserves, share holder equity, assets and liabilities.