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Cyprus Agricultural Cooperatives
The agricultural cooperative movement in Cyprus was
founded in
1909 by a village society of farmers who had returned from
an
inspection tour of Britain and Germany. The cooperative
movement's
development was slow, largely because few villagers were
qualified
to manage cooperatives. The Agricultural Bank, established
in 1925
to furnish medium- and long-term loans to farmers,
functioned
through the cooperative societies. In 1937 a new impetus
was given
to the movement by the establishment of the Cooperative
Central
Bank (CCB), with membership limited to the cooperative
societies.
The bank's initial function was to furnish the
societies with
funds for short-term loans to members. This function was
expanded
in 1960 (when the CCB absorbed the Agricultural Bank) to
include
medium- and long-term loans. By the late 1980s, the CCB
was the
third largest bank in the government-controlled area in
terms of
deposits. The cooperative movement's banking activity was
especially strong in the countryside, but also competed
with
conventional banks in urban areas and had about a 30
percent share
of the banking business as a whole.
In addition to banking and credit activities, the
cooperative
movement maintained retail stores. Cooperatives also
marketed
agricultural products and exported large amounts of citrus
fruits,
other fruits, table grapes, and vegetables. The largest
winery on
the island was the Cooperative Winery SODAP Ltd.
Data as of January 1991
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