Cooperative based trade in agricultural products on the market

Straipsnyje pateikta Lietuvoje veikiančių turgaviečių klasifikacija, rinkos tyrimų rezultatai, taip pat ūkininkų rinkos dalis, prekiaujant žemės ūkio produktais turgavietėse, ir jų dalyvavimo šioje prekyboje plėtojimo galimybės. Sudaryti ūkininkų ir kitų žemės ūkių įmonių, realizuojančių produktus kooperatiniais pagrindais, modeliai. Darbas atliktas bendradarbiaujant su Lietuvos ūkininkų sąjungos (LŪS) ir Žemės ūkio rūmų (ŽŪR) specialistais. Įdiegus šių tyrimų rezultatus, ūkininkai, žemės ūkio bendrovės (ŽŪB) ir kt. geriau suderins produkcijos gamybos ir realizavimo interesus, susidarys palankesnės sąlygos plėtoti žemės ūkio produkcijos gamybą. Kita vertus, produktų kainos turgavietėse 10–20 proc. mažesnės, o tai labai palanku vartotojams.Studies of publications, foreign and between-the wars Lithuanian experience show that the best way to sell farmers' agricultural output is to establish cooperative trade enterprises. The goal of this work - to classify markets operating in Lithuania and to evaluate the market share taken by the farmers, to determine the possibilities for farmers to develop the trade in cooperative markets. The research was done in cooperation with the specialists of Farmers' Union and Agricultural Chamber. Having systematized the research data and carried out its analysis, we can conclude that: there are favourable conditions in Lithuania to develop cooperative trade in terms of legal, economic and social factors: current level of agricultural production, positive attitude of farmers and other agricultural enterprises to the cooperatives, favourable policies for agricultural cooperation by the Lithuanian Government and local authorities; main reasons hampering the fanners to trade on the markets are: lack of time to trade, difficulties to get into the markets; large distances to the markets, lack of experience in trade; insufficient number of places in markets; relatively well organized activity of the intermediaries. Almost all those obstacles can be removed by organizing cooperative trade, which can be developed by establishing the cooperative markets, the cooperative sector on the local governments' and private markets and mobile cooperative markets. Models for the cooperative trade activity under current conditions, the ways to finance them and conditions of trading are suggested