A cooperative is a society formed by a set of partners, producers or sellers who come together in order to achieve the same objective in what is the same economic activity. The cooperative concept includes all the members of the association walking together in the same direction to benefit as much as possible from it. Furthermore, the true meaning of the cooperative implies that the principle by which this institution should be governed is that of mutual aid.
On the other hand, one of the characteristics of cooperatives is that the ownership of the entity or the it remains in the hands of society, of a group of partners who must try to act together, for the benefit of all and having the opportunity to vote individually.
Types of cooperatives
Whatever the nature of the cooperatives, the decisions will have to be valued and accepted by each one of the members and the main commitment is to offer a quality service. That said, depending on the activity to which they are engaged, there are different types of cooperatives that are classified as follows:
- Associated work cooperatives
- Savings or credit cooperatives
- Consumer and user cooperatives
- Social cooperatives
- Tourism cooperatives
- Cooperatives of agricultural, livestock or fishing services