25-31 October 2000

Interview In the interests of the minority John Borg Bartolo: the Mid-Med case made us wiser and enlightened us to look further ahead Other News BA fine sends ripples around TV stations The fine which the Broadcasting Authority meted out to NET TV last week over excessive advertising has highlighted the struggle that media companies are facing to survive in the cut-throat business. Rinella movie park post mortem needed Rinella Movie Park may have managed to keep open if tour operators had lent a helping hand, according to the Director General of the Association of General Retailers and Traders. Mobile companies get ready to respond With the launch of mobile phone company Go Mobile just six weeks away, competition in the mobile phone sector appears to be hotting up. By Nadine Brincat Gozo Business Chamber joins EU Network of Insular Chambers The motion was approved during the first General Assembly of this network, which was followed by a two-day forum entitled "The Sustainable Development of Insular SMEs in View of Globalisation". Valletta Fund Management inaugurates new premises The new premises were inaugurated by the Prime Minister, Dr Eddie Fenech Adami, Bank of Valletta Group Chairman Mr Joseph FX Zahra and Mr Paul Manduca, Chief Executive Officer of Rothschild Asset Management and director of Valletta Fund Management Limited			APS hosts conference for farmers co-operatives and producers organisations APS Bank recently held a conference for the Co-operative of Farmers and Producers Associations, with the participation of the Agriculture Department, MIC and the Malta Standardisation Authority. The conference aimed to determine what co-operatives of Maltese and Gozitan farmers should do to make the best of current and future opportunities, defeat problems and organise themselves in view of new measures favouring the setting up of new producers associations in Malta. Furthermore, Maltese agriculture’s situation was looked at as regards Malta’s eventual entry into the EU and as to how these co-operatives can help and guide their thousands of members to overcome what is regarded as a great challenge to the sector. Representatives of the Steering Committee and agriculture co-operative members were invited to attend and participate in this educational conference. Robin Pooley, Vice President of English Agricultural Co-operatives, addressed the conference, "Quite extraordinary things are happening in agriculture, not just in the field of technology but also in the field of economic structures and the way farmers farm and the way they organise themselves. "Before you think about co-ops or producer organisations, grant aid, or subsidy systems, you need to determine what you want to do, you are free people, you need to decide whether you are happy with your present system of purchasing, inputs of your crops, whether you want to work as a regular supplier at a particular outlet or do you want to speculate in the market place. Do you want to invest in upstream facilities, cold stores, abattoirs, grain stores, or whatever? How do you want to want to raise your capital, what is your attitude to risk, the list is almost endless. "Many co-operatives that I know about have failed because they have tried to make their businesses fit co-operative law and the EU’s Regulations. Which deflects them from the really big issues which have already been mentioned here this morning which is giving consumers products they really enjoy at competitive prices and going for the grant aid as going for the subsidy often deflects co-operative organisations from the logical path. "However, I found that, generally speaking, there is no serious conflict between what I want to do to run a business and co-operative law or EU regulations. With flexibility and imagination almost anything is possible, so I do not want you to believe that European Union is a big bad wolf which is simply there to impose a lot of restrictions on reluctant farmers. I don't see it that way at all. I run my business the way I think is the right way to run the business, and then I try to fit that within the general framework of regulation, because obviously, I want to be in the position to receive grant aid if grant aid is available." John Tyrell, CEO of the Irish Co-operative Organisation, also addressed the conference, "I've said that producer organisations and co-operatives are one in the same thing, I do not understand the difference between the two. I think here there are two different interpretations, two different concepts. I would understand the producer organisation as a relatively informal grouping of farmers who come together and to form some form of a legal entity. It could be a company, or a co-operative, they may want to do something together, to combine two of their products. But their co-operative goes one step further. The same mix but taking it one step further into collecting and processing and marketing that it produces and promoting it. "So I found it a little bit difficult to understand the difference, but I try to understand it a lot further. There is a European Union Regulation on producer organisations and that European Union regulation really only stepped out the criteria to allow you to draw European Union assistance for producer organisations. No more, no less, if you want to have a producer organisation with your own rules and guidelines, you can do whatever you wish in that area. "If you want to get European Union funding, there are some guidelines that are set out. I do not think that they are particularly restrictive. I think that a number of the points are consistent of what is good practice in any case. It does set out what is the role of the producer organisations, particularly in the food and vegetable sector, in fact, the requirements for our recognition as a producer organisation. "A minimum of 15 members with annual production of at least 500,000 euros (approximately Lm200,000). If you have a minimum of five members, they would have to have at least one million euros in production. The turnover of the producer organisation cannot be less than the turnover that would be generated by other activities."

The Business Times, Network House, Vjal ir-Rihan San Gwann SGN 07 | Tel: (356) 382741-3, 382745-6 | Fax: (356) 385075
Editor: Saviour Balzan
e-mail: [email protected]