Analysis of financial and structural variables of agricultural cooperatives in Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

The State of Rio Grande do Sul has 170 agricultural cooperatives with approximately 290 thousand members (OCERGS, 2011). This demonstrates the importance of cooperatives for agribusiness and the economy of the State. Thus, this study aims to analyze the financial and structural variables of these cooperatives. So, it was sought to identify associations between the variables and to suggest a classification of cooperatives in relation to the variables: billing, number of cooperative members and participation of grains business in total billing. The results showed a high heterogeneity between the analyzed cooperatives. It was observed that 49% of the revenues of the analyzed cooperatives come from activities related to grain. Cluster analysis allowed the identification of five cooperative groups. Classificação JEL: C10, G0, Q13. Artigo recebido em jul. 2012 e aceito para publicação em out. 2013.