A total of 201 new cooperatives were registered during the fifth month of the current Iranian year (July 23-Aug. 22), showing a 37% decline compared with the corresponding period of last year, based on the latest report released by the Statistics and Strategic Data Center with the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare.
These cooperatives have 3,761 members and are estimated to create 3,008 jobs, indicating a 0.2% rise and 31% fall respectively year-on-year.
The highest number of cooperatives was registered in the provinces of Fars and Khorasan Razavi with 31 and 22 companies respectively.
The fields of “construction” and “agriculture” had the largest shares with 1,508 and 491 respectively.
The sectors of “industries” and “agriculture” are also estimated to have created the largest number of jobs with 1,030 and 702 respectively.
A cooperative is a jointly owned enterprise engaging in the production or distribution of goods or the supply of services, operated by its members for their mutual benefit, typically organized by consumers or farmers. Cooperative businesses are typically more economically resilient than many other forms of enterprise, with twice the number of cooperatives surviving their first five years compared with other business ownership models. These enterprises frequently pursue social goals that they aim to accomplish by investing a proportion of trading profits back into their communities.
The parliament has tasked the government with increasing the share of cooperatives in gross domestic product to 25% by the end of the Sixth Five-Year Development Plan (2021).
According to Bahman Abdollahi, the head of Iran Chamber of Cooperatives, the current share of cooperatives in GDP is around 7%.
Iran is home to 217,138 registered cooperatives as of Aug. 6, of which 93,306 or 43% are active, according to a report by the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare's Statistics and Strategic Data Center.
Cooperatives active in “agriculture, hunting and forestry” and “industries” have the largest shares with 25.5% and 22.5%, respectively.
The average number of members and jobs created by each cooperative stands at 618 and 19, respectively, and the average investment made in each cooperative hovers around 1,719 million rials (about $15,000).
Women have registered 23,357 cooperatives, of which 10,228 (43.8%) are active. From among the cooperatives established by women, 44.5% are in “industries” and 20% in “agriculture, hunting and forestry”.
The average number of members and jobs created by women’s cooperatives stands at 12 people and the average investment made in women’s cooperatives is 445 million rials ($3,886).
Out of 170,750 managing directors of registered cooperatives, 155,086 or 90.8% are men and 15,664 or 9.2% are women.
A total of 217 knowledge-based cooperatives have been registered in Iran as of August 6, of which 203 are active.
Investments made in and employment created by knowledge-based cooperatives stand at 169,701 million rials ($1.48 million) and 2,585 jobs respectively.
About 41% of knowledge-based cooperatives are active in “industries”, followed by “real estate” with 27.1% and “agriculture, hunting and forestry" with 14.8%. The average number of members and employees in the country’s active knowledge-based cooperatives is 13 while the average investment made in such cooperatives is 836 million rials ($7,300).
According to Abdullahi, Tehran Province hosts the highest number of cooperatives among all Iranian provinces with 11% or 10,700 cooperative businesses.
