Abstract
The article examines and discloses the international experience of operating cooperatives and clusters in the organic sector to determine the benefits and motives of such forms of association, taking into account the peculiarities of organic food trade. The characteristic feature of the cooperative form, which is inherent in most existing organic cooperatives, has a socially oriented character, is revealed, since the idea of organic production is a synergy of all its aspects — economic, environmental, technical and social. The advantages and importance for the local population of existing cooperatives of organic producers in the world, which are to provide the population with a steady stream of environmentally friendly and safe products, to create additional jobs, to develop local infrastructure, to establish a credible two-way direct link between producer and consumer, are investigated, therefore mediators in such system lead to information asymmetry, resulting in the so-called «crisis of confidence». The necessity of creating a cluster as an effective platform for dialogue between organic producers, local authorities and other stakeholders, in order to eliminate current problems of functioning of the organic market and discuss its further direction of development, is outlined. Considering that the organic sector of Ukraine has an export-oriented development direction and considerable unrealized potential, it was determined that it is advisable to create cooperatives in order to increase the volume of exports of organic products, which is advantageous for the domestic producers from the commercial and production point of view, since the organic producers are medium-sized enterprises. It is emphasized the need to create clusters to initiate the exchange of experience and technologies, joint problem solving, development and implementation of projects in the organic sector, training, promotional campaigns and more.
Galnaitytė, A.; Namiotko, V.; Ovcharenko, A. 2018. Cooperatives and Clusters in Organic Sector: International Practices. Вчені записки = Scientific Notes. Vol. 19, p. 48–55, ISSN 2415-850x (print), ISSN 2415-8518 (online); DOI.10.33111/vz_kneu.19.18.01.04.026.032.