Lessons learnt:

The presentations fuelled discussion by the participants of the meeting. Several issues were raised for further analysis:

• It was indicated that in the Netherlands the single purpose cooperatives performed better that the multi-purpose cooperatives. Several problems have beenidentified related with heterogeneity in membership and service provision. In many development countries however an important problem in cooperative development is having sufficient skilled board members. It was argued that sometimes using the same skilled organizational structure (existing social capital) could prove more efficient than starting a separate producer organizations for each function/product. However, the market tendencies that lead to the specialisation of cooperatives in the Netherlands are also active in developing countries. There is a tension between economic efficiency in service delivery versus social efficiency in organizational governance.
• Risk reduction is central in livelihood strategies of poor farmers. Where in the North farmers organize themselves to get market access and engage in risky innovations, in developing countries the objective of profit is less important and the objective of service delivery for risk reduction (stable market outlet, external finance, technical assistance, co-investment in production) seems more important.
• Several persons raised the issue of capitalization of the producer organisation. Many POs prove to have problems in raising investment capital from members, from retained profits or from credit institutions. The ability to get access to investment funds seems to be one of the essential points of difference between legal forms of producer organisation. Access to external funds is strongly related with the responsibility members take in each organisational format. However, this legal framework differs between country and regions. Especially the role and institutional embeddedness of cooperatives differs between countries.
• Fear for bureaucratic costs and corruption are important reasons for producer organisations not to choose the cooperative legal format. Especially in countries were in the past cooperative have been obligatory as marketing channels (marketing boards), as in Africa, these 'external' factors created enormous bureaucracies. During the meeting the question was raised as to what extent Fair Trade is instrumental in modernising these cooperatives, or maintaining 'inefficient dinosaurs'.
• It seems that the formalisation of organisation in associations, enterprises or cooperatives in the Netherlands and in developing countries depends to significant degree on 'the legal adviser you have'. Through Agri-ProFocus participants should develop a common understanding of the different legal option in a certain country, to better assist POs in choosing the format that suits them best.
• However, next to exploring legal formats for producer organisations, Agri-ProFocus should stimulate collective learning on the process to change already existing organisations and make them more suitable to operate in restructuring markets.

Beyond Cooperatives: Institutional Forms of Producer Organisations