Newly-Founded Cooperatives Decline by 40%

EghtesadOnline: A total of 217 new cooperatives were registered in Iran during the second month of the current Iranian year (April 21-May 21), showing a 40% decline compared with the corresponding period of last year, the latest report released by the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare's Statistics and Strategic Data Center show.

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06 July 2019

These cooperatives have 5,543 members and are estimated to have created 3,118 jobs, indicating a 31% and 45% fall respectively YOY.

The highest number of cooperatives was registered in the provinces of Fars and Khorasan Razavi with 42 and 25 companies respectively.

The highest number of cooperatives was registered in the fields of “industries” (67) and “agriculture” (62), Financial Tribune reported.

The fields of “construction” and “wholesale and retail” had the most members with 1,529 and 1,469 respectively.

The sectors of “agriculture” and “industries” are estimated to create the highest number of jobs with 950 and 866 respectively.

A cooperative is a jointly-owned enterprise engaged in the production, distribution or supply of goods and services, operated by its members for their mutual benefit, typically organized by consumers or farmers. Cooperative businesses are more economically resilient than many other forms of enterprise, with twice the number of cooperatives surviving their first five years compared with other business ownership models. Cooperatives aim to accomplish social goals by investing a proportion of their trading profits back into their communities.

The Iranian Parliament has tasked the government with increasing the share of cooperatives in gross domestic product to 25% by the end of the Sixth Five-Year Development Plan (ending 2022).

According to Bahman Abdollahi, the head of Iran Chamber of Cooperatives, the sector’s current share in GDP is around 7%.