Could co-operatives help small businesses and primary producers get through the COVID-19 pandemic?

24 April 2020

Via ABC Radio Country Hour, 23 April 2020

It sounds simple but could working together be the thing to get small businesses and primary producers through this pandemic.

Co-operatives are 100 per cent community-owned businesses. They help people work together, they take risks together and they face challenges together.

Now the Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutual has launched a Co-operative Farming Hotline to help Australian farmers develop farm co-operatives.

Currently in Australia there’s more than 200 agricultural co-ops owned by around 20,000 farmers, fishers and foresters.

South Australia has a rich history of co-operatives, in fact it has some of the oldest in the country.

For more on how co-ops could help through this crisis Isabella Pittaway spoke to Melina Morrison, CEO of the Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutual and Jamie Higgins from Master Butchers Co-operative in South Australia.