Marketing Coordination in Agricultural Cooperatives

The use of marketing agreements adds elements of marketing coordination between members and their cooperatives. Marketing agreements used in this study included both marketing contracts signed with members and bylaw provisions that required members to market with their cooperative. Type of product marketed and related marketing services had a strong influence on the level of agreements. Except for dairy, cooperatives with marketing agreements had a greater proportionate investment in assets, especially fixed assets, than other cooperatives and were more likely to use long-term sales contracts with their customers. Dairy cooperatives had a range of bargaining and marketing relationships with their members that created a more complex asset investment relationship