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Más Unidos, Plan Nacional de Asociatividad Chile –A masterplan to strengthen cooperatives in Chile.
Chile is a leading exporter and well known for its high quality fruits, wine and aquaculture products. What is less known is that almost 90% of the
farmers in Chile are smallholder farmers, without any economic power and access to the international market, resulting in high inequality rates in
this country.
To ‘bridge the gap’ and to give smallholder farmers access to international markets, the Minister of Agriculture in Chile, Mr. Antonio Walker, has
addressed cooperative development as one of the priorities. Business-like, modern cooperatives will strengthen farmers’ position in the supply
chain and will contribute to the growing food demand in the world. The minister has requested Rabo Partnerships to assist the Chilean
Government in realizing their national masterplan called ‘Más Unidos - Plan Nacional de Asociatividad Chile’.
Rabo Partnerships has designed a tailor-made framework that will strengthen the position of producer cooperatives in value chains, taking into account the rapidly changing consumer trends and the climate change challenges farmers are facing. A curriculum will be designed for the
various stakeholders in Chile with the objective to guide cooperatives and enablers in the development of the cooperative sector and more
specifically individual producer cooperatives. To support the transition, Rabo Partnerships will also draft a transformation plan, based on the
‘golden triangle’, which will stimulate a close cooperation between public-, private- and knowledge partners.
Next to the involvement of Rabobank colleagues, Rabo Partnerships works together with Jos Bijman, Associate Professor of Cooperative Organisations at Wageningen University.
It is inspiring to experience that this program is fully supported by Rabo Finance Chile, and that our mission of ‘Growing a Better World Together’
is really the DNA of this branch. Five of our colleagues from our Chilean branch are enthusiastically involved in this project. We want to thank
Brenda de Swart, Francine Morizon, Agustin Fracchia, Juan Manual Garcia and Ricardo Olguin for their commitment and hard work.