Gregory Roberts | Cooperatives: Key to Jamaica’s economic growth?

This year is the UN Year of Cooperatives. It is also the 180th anniversary of the cooperative movement that marks its beginning in the northern regions of England. In the town of Rochdale, weavers and artisans pledged to work together, in response to the economic changes that led to the ravishing of their communities. With their livelihoods threatened, due to competition from more efficient producers, they realised that their only hope was in working together. They were no longer viable as individual producers, but banded together they stood a much better chance of providing for their families.

In time, the cooperative movement found fertile ground in Jamaica, where the principles of self-reliance and cooperation, evidenced by ‘day-fi-day’ arrangements in farming and ‘pardna’ systems, simply paved the way for formal cooperatives to be launched. people’s cooperative banks were launched in the first decade of the 20th century to support farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs in many parishes.

In 1924, in the heyday of the banana trade, Jamaica Producers was formed as a cooperative in Lucky Hill, St. Mary as an entity to pursue the interest of farmers and others in the banana industry. By the 1940s, the credit union sector was blossoming. From its genesis among urban workers, Jamaica’s credit union movement permeated various professions and communities. Unknown to many, the first credit union to be registered in the UK was started by a Jamaican.

OFTEN OVERLOOKED

As Jamaica seeks sustainable and inclusive economic growth, a critical, but often overlooked tool lies in the cooperative. Cooperatives are businesses. They do more than simply pursue the maximum profit possible.

They are bound by definition and regulations to look out for the interests of their members – and some, such as credit unions, are only allowed to do business with their members. Cooperatives are underpinned by six principles, including democratic control, open and voluntary membership, economic participation of members, promotion of education, autonomy and independence and cooperation among cooperatives.

Bornette Donaldson, current president of the National Union of Cooperative Societies in Jamaica, recently opined that cooperatives are among the most effective systems for fostering social mobility and changing the economic and social situation of the poor in any society. This statement stands on its own. The heyday of cooperatives in Jamaica coincides with the highest levels of economic growth and social transformation. Many members of Jamaica’s current elites can trace the upward mobility of their families to direct cooperative involvement of their forebears.

This is not only in Jamaica. Across the globe, cooperatives have been instrumental in fostering economic stability, reducing poverty, and promoting community-driven development. Jamaica’s main trading partners all have very strong cooperative presence in various sectors. In the US, the top-100 cooperative businesses showed a total revenue of over US$325 billion for 2023. Prominent in such sectors as banking and finance, grocery, agriculture, health, as well as energy and communications, some 30,000 cooperatives contribute more than $650 billion. UK figures released in September 2024 showed a combined income of £165.7 billion across the cooperative economy. This includes credit unions, housing cooperatives, football clubs, taxi companies, energy providers and grocery shops. The Coop Retail societies rank second in the UK in the number of grocery shops under their umbrella.

OUTSIZED ROLE

France, The Netherlands, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Brazil are all countries in which the cooperative economy plays an outsized role in economic and social development. Most of the food eaten by Japanese are produced by agricultural cooperatives, leading to increased resilience and redundancy in food security.

Some 58 per cent of Brazilians receive their healthcare from cooperatives. In South Korea, key parts of the service industries are dominated by cooperatives. Their proclivity to be rooted in communities means that they offer stable jobs in sectors such as IT, social care and food production.

In a few weeks every Jamaican home, whether ‘yaad or abraad’ will consume some ‘Jamaican’ cheese. Jamaica’s most iconic cheese brand, Tastee, is manufactured in Jamaica by a company that is partly owned by a New Zealand cooperative, Frontera Cooperative Group Limited.

Each bite you take will add to the global cooperative economy as much as it will add to the coffers of Grace Foods. And the next time you pop over to south Florida or New York for a executive health check, you just might be booked into a cooperative hospital. In Canada too, cooperatives are key movers and providers of healthcare and education.

We need cooperatives in agriculture, tourism, the services industry, healthcare and education, among others. In addition to the local Jamaican market, cooperatives also have access to other cooperatives. In agriculture, we want Jamaican farmers to be targetting cooperative retail shops in the UK, Canada and Europe. In tourism, local community-based accommodation providers can form cooperatives that would easily partner agencies, such as the UK’s Co-op Travel platform to offer tailored holiday packages.

For many observers, it is unbelievable that Jamaica continues to struggle to achieve economic growth. There is a growing number of us who believe that strengthening the cooperative economy offers a proven path to economic growth, social development, environmental protection and the creation of a more just society. This will require a concerted and sustained effort to expand beyond credit unions to the very non-financial, productive sectors, where it all started.

By modernising and expanding its cooperative sector, Jamaica could create a more resilient, inclusive, and community-driven economy. If cooperatives receive the necessary policy support and public buy-in, they could become a key pillar of Jamaica’s long-term development strategy, ensuring economic empowerment and shared prosperity for all.

Now is the time to recognise and invest in cooperatives, not as relics of the past, but as innovative engines of Jamaica’s future growth.

Dr Gregory Roberts is the vice chair of the Cooperative College, UK; he serves on the board of the International Cooperative Working Group of Cooperatives UK. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com