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Story in Brief

Georgia's agricultural producers face increasingly competitive markets for their products, often accompanied by depressed prices and limited opportunities for adding value through product differentiation and marketing. The Georgia Cooperative Development Center was established in 2004 as a partnership between the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences' Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development, Golden Triangle Resource Conservation and Development Council, and a number of other Georgia RC&D's. The GCDC's mission is to increase economic opportunities and benefits for people in rural Georgia by fostering growth and success of cooperative enterprises. The GCDC provides assistance to new and emerging agricultural cooperatives, primarily in the area of value-added enterprises, through technical advice and guidance, business analysis and facilitated learning. During 2008, the Georgia Cooperative Development Center helped to establish one new cooperative in the state, began the ground work to establish several more and continued to provide guidance to those it helped to establish in previous years. A cooperative of chestnut growers in southwest Georgia and northwest Florida was formed to market fresh chestnuts and to process chestnuts into flour as a value-added product, as well as to explore opportunities for additional value-added chestnut products. The GCDC is also working with a group of producers of various agricultural products in Morgan County to form a cooperative that will develop and promote a local Morgan County brand. Several existing cooperatives, including Baker County Sweet Corn Growers and Georgia Equine Resource Management were provided the ongoing technical assistance necessary to help them continue as viable businesses and more than 20 producer groups representing commodities as diverse as poultry, beef, sea food, and vegetables, as well as agri-tourism and farmers markets were assisted in some way as they explore the potential for establishing cooperative business structures.

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