June 6, 2017
A major barrier to farmers setting up a business with other producers will be removed after the launch on Tuesday of a free online tool that farmers can use to register their business as a co-operative.
The “Co-op Builder” is an online template for the legal documents required to set up a co-operative in Australia.
It has been developed by the Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals (BCCM) – the peak body for Australian co-operatives – for the Farm Co-operatives and Collaboration Pilot Program, a federally funded two-year pilot to enhance the expertise available to farmers wanting to establish agricultural co-ops.
“Co-operatives are a proven, self-help option for farmers to run sustainable, locally owned and operated farm businesses and meet their shared goals, whether that’s better farm gate prices, cheaper inputs or better quality services,” BCCM CEO Melina Morrison said.
“The importance of a business model that offers farmers another way to stay on the land and keep control of their family farming businesses cannot be underestimated in this time of increasing farm ownership consolidation and competitive global markets.”
Ms Morrison said legal costs and a lack of plain English information about how to set up a co-operative in Australia has been one of the biggest barriers to establishing co-ops, according to a Senate inquiry into the sector that handed down its findings last year.
“The online tool takes a ‘follow the bouncing ball’ approach to demystify the co-op legal model and to debunk the idea you need to spend a lot of money on legal advice to simply register a co-op business in the first place,” Ms Morrison said.
The builder consists of a Constitution Builder to help prepare the rules for a commercial co-operative, and a Disclosure Statement Builder, which helps users prepare the co-op equivalent of a prospectus for potential members and investors.
Farmers can access the builder for free on the Farming Together website.
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