Farming cooperatives: the myth of growing food without middlemen
Harvesting 10 kg of olives earns you 1 euro. Is a small farming cooperative viable? The numbers behind olive growing and direct sales in Spain.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Farming cooperatives: the myth of growing food without middlemen
Harvesting 10 kilos of clean olives – the equivalent of a black rubbish bag – yields a profit of 1 euro. That's what those who have already done the maths will tell you. The idea of setting up a small farming cooperative, with olive trees and beehives in Cáceres, sounds like a return to rural life, to food sovereignty, to escaping the big supermarket chains. But the bottom line is stubborn.
The economics of a miniature olive grove
A one-metre olive tree costs 3.80 euros. Plant a few, add some beehives and wait for the harvest. The problem is that olive growing is only profitable on large mechanised farms, as farmers from Jaén point out. Without machinery, the margin evaporates: 1 euro for every 10 kilos of olives. And that's before deducting diesel, fertiliser and time. The small producer is competing on costs with the vast estate that sells oil at 2.50 euros a litre.
Cutting out the middleman: solution or mirage?
Those who defend the cooperative argue that skipping the middleman means higher earnings. The theory is flawless; the practice, far less so. On a tiny farm, the saving on intermediation takes you from 1 euro to 1.05 euros. You can't live on that. As one participant quips: "You can't make a living from the land unless you have livestock or a large estate".
Organic farming and direct sales: the narrow path
Some are betting on organic farming and farmers' markets. The margin is higher, but the volume is minimal. And logistics – getting the product to the end consumer – remains the bottleneck. Without that piece of the puzzle, the cooperative is a subsistence garden, not a business.
So does a small farming cooperative make sense? Perhaps not as an investment, but as a hedge against food inflation or as a self-sufficiency project. But profitable in hard cash? That remains to be seen.
Related discussions in the forum
Harvesting 10 kilos of clean olives – the equivalent of a black rubbish bag – yields a profit of 1 euro. That's what those who have already done the maths will tell you. The idea of setting up a small farming cooperative, with olive trees and beehives in Cáceres, sounds like a return to rural life, to food sovereignty, to escaping the big supermarket chains. But the bottom line is stubborn.
The economics of a miniature olive grove
A one-metre olive tree costs 3.80 euros. Plant a few, add some beehives and wait for the harvest. The problem is that olive growing is only profitable on large mechanised farms, as farmers from Jaén point out. Without machinery, the margin evaporates: 1 euro for every 10 kilos of olives. And that's before deducting diesel, fertiliser and time. The small producer is competing on costs with the vast estate that sells oil at 2.50 euros a litre.
Cutting out the middleman: solution or mirage?
Those who defend the cooperative argue that skipping the middleman means higher earnings. The theory is flawless; the practice, far less so. On a tiny farm, the saving on intermediation takes you from 1 euro to 1.05 euros. You can't live on that. As one participant quips: "You can't make a living from the land unless you have livestock or a large estate".
Organic farming and direct sales: the narrow path
Some are betting on organic farming and farmers' markets. The margin is higher, but the volume is minimal. And logistics – getting the product to the end consumer – remains the bottleneck. Without that piece of the puzzle, the cooperative is a subsistence garden, not a business.
So does a small farming cooperative make sense? Perhaps not as an investment, but as a hedge against food inflation or as a self-sufficiency project. But profitable in hard cash? That remains to be seen.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (17 replies).
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