FARMING co-operatives are enjoying a resurgence as family farms look to increase their profits.
The federal government’s $13.8-million pilot program Farming Together is encouraging producers to work together to market their produce and get the best farm input prices.
In the past year, it has engaged with more than 700 farming groups, representing about 16,000 farmers.
At the second annual conference – Strength in Numbers: Make it Happen – held in Adelaide on Tuesday, nearly 300 farmers and consultants heard from several co-operative start ups.
The Organic and Regenerative Farming Investment Co-operative was launched in March and within weeks had 75 members.
It is Australia’s first financial cooperative for investing in organic farming land and aims to buy $10m in certified and conversion properties in Vic in coming months.
ORICOOP founder Carolyn Suggate decided there had to a better way forward after $150m in family farms in Vic’s south Gippsland region were sold to overseas buyers and superannuation funds between 2005 and 2012.
“We don’t just want to buy farms we want to buy farms with farmers,” she said.
“We have investors who understand the triple bottomline in agriculture – financial, environmental and social – instead of super funds who are all about financial profitability and capital growth extraction.
“Through a co-operative I believe we can make this work.”
In WA the Stirlings to Coast Farmers Group wants to establish a co-operative to build a feedmill and 10,000 head lamb feedlot, near Albany.
Project officer Victoria Bennett says the aim is to value-add out of spec grain from SCF’s 85 members but also ensure greater traceability of their lamb through a branded product.
“It is a big risk to do something like this on our own as a farmer so to be able to multiply with funds and people who can help us get this started is really important,” she said.
“A lot of producers also want to tell their story – we farm because they love it.
“We put our heart into every product we produce and we produce it efficiently and sustainably.”
Forty projects have been successful in Farming Together’s Round 1 farmer group funding, including three soon to be announced in SA, valued at almost $500,000.
