Opportunities for the Wales Co-operative Centre to work with the farming sector to support the development of secondary agricultural co-ops

The Wales Co-operative Centre has not been very active in the farming sector since around 2004. The ERDF funding that has provided the backbone of our recent work supporting social businesses has prevented us from supporting agricultural activity directly.

We are able to support secondary agricultural co-operatives, however, providing they meet the jobs and growth criteria of the Social Business Wales project.

In order to support our return to working in this sector, we wish to commission a piece of research that:

• identifies the extent of secondary agricultural co-operatives in Wales

• compares levels of co-operative activity in Wales with the rest of the UK and Ireland

• makes recommendations for the next steps the Centre and others could take to step up its activities in this area

The audience for the report will include the agriculture sector, AMs on the Cross Party Group on Co-ops and the Minister.

For further information please contact: endaf.griffiths@wavehill.com