EXPLORING THE COOPERATIVE ECONOMY REPORT 2020 REPORT 2020 EXPLORING THE COOPERATIVE ECONOMY www.monitor.coop Titolo capitolo 1 THE WORLD COOPERATIVE MONITOR IS AN INTERNATIONAL COOPERATIVE ALLIANCE INITIATIVE WITH THE SCIENTIFIC SUPPORT OF EURICSE MADE POSSIBLE BY THE SUPPORT OF OUR ORGANISATIONAL PARTNERS FOR INFORMATION CONTACT www.monitor.coop [email protected] THE 2020 Bruno Roelants WORLD Director General, ICA COOPERATIVE MONITOR Gianluca Salvatori Secretary General, Euricse EXPLORING THE COOPERATIVE ECONOMY The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) and the Euro- as you’ll read about some in this report, many large cooperatives pean Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterpris- have stepped in to help employees, members, and communities es (Euricse) are pleased to present the ninth annual World to face the health and economic repercussions of COVID 19. Cooperative Monitor report. This publication reports on the In addition to the rankings and special section on the glob- world’s largest cooperatives and mutuals, or groups of coop- al pandemic, this year’s report also includes a special focus eratives and mutuals, including rankings of the Top 300 and on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), goal 13 sectoral analysis based on 2018 financial data. – Climate Action in particular. As in previous editions of the Each year, the World Cooperative Monitor builds upon the WCM, we have analyzed the contribution of the Top 300 and research and data collection of the previous years, continually other large cooperatives to meeting the targets of this SDG, refining and improving the methodology and data collection demonstrating how cooperatives can lead the way to a more strategies. There are many challenges in comparing organi- sustainable economy. sations across countries with different legal frameworks and The newly formed International Cooperative Entrepreneurship standards but, working with partners and federations from Think Tank (ICETT), a group of large cooperatives engaged with across the globe, we are able to construct a scientifically ro- the ICA on strategic thinking around cooperative entrepreneur- bust and informative report. ship, has contributed to the reports on COVID 19 and SDG 13 and For the cooperative movement, and not only, this past year we thank the members for their support and commitment to this has presented serious challenges and also seen meaningful annual publication. A special thank you as well to all the contribu- positive contributions to health and well-being around the world. tors and collaborators, the organizations that provided their data, The global pandemic has put a strain on many businesses, but and the supporters of this year’s World Cooperative Monitor. 3 INDEX WCM 2020 6 INTRODUCTION How are cooperatives and mutuals responding to the current global challenges? Global landscape of large cooperatives The WCM and the ICETT - Interview with ICETT Chair, Tarun Bhargava (IFFCO) WCM data collection 18 IMPACT AND REACTIONS OF COOPERATIVES TO COVID-19 Case story from Smart - Helping freelancers through the COVID crisis 28 CLIMATE ACTION - WHAT LARGE COOPERATIVES CAN DO TO MEET SGD 13 Interview with Peter Westall, Midcounties Co-operative Case story from Rabobank - innovative banking for climate consciousness 42 2018 RESULTS AND RANKINGS Highlights and Key results Methodology and data sources Sector Rankings Top 300 Ranking by Turnover with employment data Top 300 Ranking by Turnover over GDP per capita 142 REFERENCES 144 TEAM, PARTNERS, SPONSORS The World Cooperative Monitor team and advisory committee Promoters and Organisational partners EXPLORING THE COOPERATIVE ECONOMY INTRODUCTION The World Cooperative Monitor, which achieves its 9th effectively responding to these two global challenges. In edition in 2020, has continuously developed in pursuing using information from the collected data as well as in its two ambitions: illustration of the economic and so- collaborating closely with the International Cooperative cial contributions of cooperatives and mutuals through Entrepreneurship Think Tank (ICETT), the WCM 2020 the data on large cooperatives and mutuals and devel- dedicates two sections on these topics. opment of a methodology for data collection. Although The COVID 19 chapter discusses some of the effects there are still unsolved issues, the WCM 2020 describes the global pandemic has had on the cooperative sector the global landscape of large cooperatives and mutuals along with some of the ways in which cooperatives and and illustrates their dynamics, with empirical evidences. policymakers have responded. Despite the huge impact the health crisis has had, cooperatives have proven HOW ARE COOPERATIVES AND MUTUALS RESPOND- resilient and innovative. The chapter highlights some ING TO THE CURRENT GLOBAL CHALLENGES? concrete actions large cooperatives have taken and includes a case story about SMART and their actions It is sure that the year of 2020 will be marked as the towards helping their members, primarily from the cul- year of unprecedented global crisis: COVID19. At the ture and creative arts sector. same time, the temporary improvements to the quality The section focused on large cooperatives and SDG 13 of the environment during this crisis showed that our – Climate Action brings our attention to the contribu- actions for the climate could change the negative sce- tion of large cooperatives to mitigating and adapting nario related to climate change. In this sense, it was to climate change, and in general creating a greener very timely and relevant that “cooperatives for climate society. Concrete examples of actions taken by large action” was adopted as the theme of the International cooperatives, including an interview with Midcounties Day of Cooperatives 2020. Co-operative and a case story on Rabobank, demon- In focusing on large cooperatives and mutuals, which strate how the contributions of cooperatives can be can make a more visible and measurable impact, the fundamental on several fronts, not just within their WCM 2020 tries to capture the dynamics of how they are cooperative but also in promoting and encouraging 6 Introduction REPORT 2020 change in the actions of partners, members, clients, consumer cooperatives (21 enterprises) represents and local communities. the third biggest economic sector followed by the fi- nancial service sector (21 enterprises). In terms of co- GLOBAL LANDSCAPE OF LARGE COOPERATIVES AND operative type, almost half of the Top 300 are produc- MUTUALS er cooperatives (133 enterprises) mainly representing agricultural cooperatives and retailers’ cooperatives, In establishing the Top 300 rankings, the WCM 2020 also whereas mutuals (83 enterprises) and consumer/user showcases the economic weight and main character- cooperatives (65 enterprises) mainly composed of con- istics of the largest cooperative and mutual enterpris- sumer cooperatives and financial service cooperatives es across the world1. The WCM presents two different represent the other half. Only a small number of work- Top 300 rankings: one based on turnover and the oth- er cooperatives (3 enterprises) and multi-stakeholder er based on the ratio of turnover over Gross Domestic cooperatives (2 enterprises) are included in the Top Product (GDP) per capita2. Employment data is also pre- 300 rankings by turnover. As the turnover is taken with sented for the Top 300 where available. its absolute value, most of the large cooperatives and The Top 300 by turnover ranking this year (data ref- mutuals in the Top 300 rankings are from the most in- erence year 2018) presents an overall total of 2,146 dustrialized countries such as, the USA (74 enterpris- billion USD with the agricultural (104 enterprises) and es), France (44 enterprises), Germany (30 enterprises), insurance sectors (101 enterprises) dominating the Japan (24 enterprises), Netherlands (17 enterprises) list. The wholesale and retail trade sector mainly com- and Italy (12 enterprises). posed of retailers’ cooperatives (33 enterprises) and 1 It should be noted that due to limited data sources, the Top 300 rankings cannot be considered exhaustive. However, it should also be noted that based on the con- solidated data collection methods refined over the last nine years, the rankings in the WCM 2020 represent a very important part of largest cooperatives worldwide (for more detailed information on data collection, please see the section on methodological remarks in this chapter and the Methodology and Data sources section). 2 The ratio of turnover over GDP per capita measures the turnover of the Top 300 cooperative and mutual enterprises in terms of the purchasing power of an economy, relating the turnover of the enterprise to the wealth of the country. It allows us to compare the relative size of enterprises in considering different levels of national economic wealth. Introduction 7 EXPLORING THE COOPERATIVE ECONOMY However, the Top 300 based on the ratio of turn- change also implies that worker cooperatives be- over over GDP per capita shows a different land- come more visible in the Top 300 GDP per capita scape. When we correct the bias in calculating (10 enterprises). Particularly, the Top 300 turn- the effect of different levels of national economic over over GDP per capita allows more countries context, the predominance of agriculture and in- to enter in the ranking, such as Colombia, Costa surance sectors is slightly mitigated and service Rica, Uruguay, Turkey and Kenya, which is the sectors become more visible (education,