Understanding Agricultural and Worker Cooperatives

Agricultural Cooperatives

These entities consist of legal or natural persons associated with the use or enjoyment of farm, forestry, or animal husbandry land. Their purpose is to provide supplies and services while conducting operations aimed at improving the economic and technical holdings of their partners.

Activities of Agricultural Cooperatives

To achieve their objectives, these cooperatives may conduct the following activities:

• Acquisition and Production: Acquire, develop, produce, and manufacture necessary elements for the production or format of the cooperative farm or members' farms.
• Processing and Marketing: Preserve, classify, transform, transport, distribute, and market products from the cooperative and its members, including direct producer sales.
• Infrastructure: Acquire and sanitize land dedicated to improving agriculture, livestock, and forestry, as well as constructing and operating facilities for these purposes.

To promote viability, cooperatives may process agricultural products from other farms, limited to 5% of each activity per fiscal year. Statutes may allow this to reach 40%; however, exceeding this threshold disqualifies the entity as an agricultural cooperative society.

Cooperative Community Exploitation of Land

These cooperatives associate holders of rights regarding the use or enjoyment of land or immovable property capable of farming. Holders waive their individual rights to the cooperative and may provide or work the land through it.

Operational Regulations

The objectives mirror those of standard agricultural cooperatives. While they may conduct transactions with third parties, the 5% limit per fiscal year applies strictly, with no provision to exceed this percentage.

• Worker Integration: Cooperatives may associate workers without transferring rights of enjoyment, in which case they are governed by worker cooperative standards.
• Hiring Limits: The cooperative may hire external workers, provided the total number of legal workdays does not exceed 20% of the total annual days worked by member-partners.

Worker Cooperatives

These cooperatives group individuals who perform economic activities to produce goods and services through their collective labor. In these organizations, work may be performed by non-partner employees, provided their total workdays do not exceed 30% of the total annual days worked by member-partners.

Membership and Employment

• Permanent Status: The law provides for permanent workers with one year of tenure, who may be admitted as members upon request.
• Contract Types: Members may be compensated for full-time, partial, or seasonal work.
• Temporary Needs: If the cooperative requires activity significantly higher than its standard output, it may utilize fixed-term contracts of less than 6 months, subject to prior authorization from the Board of Andalusia.