Conference on agricultural cooperatives:

“Cooperative values in internationalized operations”

Helsinki, Finland, June 14-16, 2012

http://www.helsinki.fi/ernac2012/index.html

The second eRNAC conference will be organized in Helsinki, Finland, on June 14-16, 2012. eRNAC stands for Electronic Research Network for Agricultural Cooperatives. This virtual organization consists of researchers interested in agricultural producer cooperatives. Most of these researchers base their studies on economic theories. You find eRNAC here: http://wwwernac.blogspot.com/  See also Linkedin:  http://www.linkedin.com/groups/eRNAC-4235167?gid=4235167&trk=hb_side_g/  

You are welcome to register at http://www.helsinki.fi/ernac2012/index.html. There you find a preliminary program as well as tentative headings of the sessions and a list of the accepted papers. The conference will conver three days. In addition to researchers, also representatives (board members, executives) of cooperatives in Finland and elsewhere are invited. In the middle of the program there will be a half-day field trip to the major Finnish agricultural cooperatives, namely

• Valio (dairy; http://ammattilaiset.valio.fi/portal/page/portal/valiocom) and
• Metsäliitto (forestry; http://www.metsaliitto.com/Pages/Default.aspx).

The organizers are Petri Ollila, University of Helsinki (++358 50 55 44 747 ; petri.ollila@helsinki.fi) and Jerker Nilsson, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (+46 18 67 17 68; Jerker.Nilsson@ekon.slu.se).

Selected papers from the conference will be included in a special issue of the Journal of Rural Cooperation.

Financial support from Pellervo (the Central Organization of Farmers’ Cooperatives) is gratefully acknowledged as well as from other agricultural cooperatives in the Northern countries.

The advisory board consists of the following:

• Claude Ménard

·         Constantine Iliopoulos

·         Decio Zylbersztajn

·         George Hendrikse

·         Huang Zu-Hui

·         Kostas Karantininis

·         Michael Cook

·         Murray Fulton

·         Rainer Kühl

Please note that the year 2012 has been appointed by the United Nations to be the International Year of Cooperatives.

In conjunction with the conference there will be poster presentations. There is no deadline for posters and no limit as to the number and the size of poster. The only requirement is that the organizers get a notice before the 1^st of June, 2012.

The spouse program will comprise participation in the conference dinner as well as the field trip. As the conference venue is located in the city center of Helsinki there will be an ample supply of activities for the spouses. Helsinki has recently been appointed as the world’s second most attractive tourist destination, the motivation being its splendid architectural sights. Furthermore, Helsinki is beautiful in the middle of the summer and with its very bright summer nights (though not quite midnight sun).

Important dates:

• Early bird registration before 1st of May: € 350
• Registration before the 1st of June: € 450
• Registration for spouse program: € 150