The agricultural cooperatives in Cuba. The negotiation and contracting of their productions with the state companies

Abstract

The objective of the present work is to analyze the main deficiencies that limit the contracting process of the agricultural cooperatives in the province of Granma, Cuba. Within the empirical methods, scientific observation and two group interviews with members of the director boards of agricultural cooperatives in the municipalities of Bayamo and Cauto Cristo were used. In addition, three surveys were applied; the first one was done to 81 Granma´s cooperative presidents in 2005; the second survey was applied to 37 presidents of cooperatives in the Bayamo municipality in 2017 and the third one, to 16 presidents of cooperatives from Cauto Cristo in 2020. The main conclusions of this research are that the legal framework for contracting the production of agricultural cooperatives is well designed in the different documents that regulate this process; the ups and downs of the contracting policy of the production of agricultural cooperatives in the last 20 years has allowed the production of shortcomings in the process that have a negative impact on the economic management of agricultural cooperatives; and the last conclusion is that the main shortcomings of the contracting process are the repeated breach of contracts both for the sale of raw materials to cooperatives and for the purchase of products, the imposition of contracts on the boards of directors; the low preparation of them to face the negotiation process and the degree of dissatisfaction they have with the hiring process.