High-ranking Agricultural Delegation Visited Israel

this union of cooperatives working throughout china is the largest agricultural cooperative in china, and brings under one roof more than 20 thousand cooperatives with more than 160 million farmers.  in response to an invitation by the negev institute* and the cooperative movement in israel a delegation of this union’s senior officials recently came to israel.

surprisingly enough, this delegation from the umbrella organization of the agricultural cooperatives in china (acfmc), led by its president choga tsaihua, came to learn from the israelis about cooperative work.

the delegation’s visit began with a dinner attended by muli dor, the negev institute’s chairperson; ariel dalomi, the institute’s joint managing director; and rafi goldman, the director of the cooperative development center at the negev institute.  the parties discussed options for cooperation with the various cooperatives in israel. later the chinese toured the granot corporation’s facilities (central cooperative ltd) where they met with roberto kuperman, granot’s ceo and nir meir, the chairperson of the organization of kibbutz cooperative society and also held separate meetings with executives in the jerusalem coop and icl. 

 

the chinese delegates signed agreements for cooperation with their israeli counterparts for training the chinese cooperatives’ leadership in israel, in addition to developing commercial relations. between the different official events the delegation toured jerusalem, the dead sea and visited kibbutz gan shmuel, where they met with uri cinnamon, the managing director of gan shmuel foods ltd. and were impressed by the kibbutz’s collective way of life.

 

photo: the ramat hanegev institute

according to muli dor, the negev institute’s joint chairperson, the institute’s center for cooperative development has promoted for the past decade the establishment and development of cooperatives in israel and worldwide. in addition to strengthening the connection between the business and social areas as well as community development, the center counsels cooperative groups and entrepreneurs, and also runs courses on cooperative initiative for groups from israel and the developing world. in all the center’s activities the necessary steps are taken to ensure a working partnership with community leaders, help is offered in developing the means to consolidate and reinforce community systems and charting the community’s capabilities and needs.           

* negev institute = negev institute for strategies for peace and development

credit for photos: the ramat hanegev institute