ABSTRACT
Rural cooperatives appear to be flourishing in China. With the Law on Specialized Farmer Cooperatives formally implemented in July 2007, rural cooperatives having industrial-commercial business registration stood at 100,000 in 2008. They grew to 689,000 by the end of 2012 and are expected to reach 900,000 by 2015 (China Review News 2013). For the purpose of such cooperatives, the law defines specialized farmers as ‘the producers and operators of the same kind of farm products or the providers or users of services for the same kind of agricultural production and operation’ and allows agro enterprises to join as cooperative members. According to the law, specialized farmer cooperatives should ‘mainly serve their members, offering such services as purchasing the means of agricultural production, marketing, processing, transporting and storing farm products, and providing technologies and information related to agricultural production and operation (Falüjie 2007).’ In 2008, the central
The authors wish to acknowledge the support of the project ‘Forging New Trans-border Links, Social/ Community Economies (SCEs) in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta (PRD)’ (K-QZA2). We would like to thank Alex Day, Matt Hale, Burak Gurel, as well as two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.
