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Giant Step Forward for Cooperation
The Agricultural Utilization and Research Institute (AURI) has announced a giant step forward for would-be Minnesota entrepreneurs who need help with organizational approaches to developing and bringing new products to market. It is starting a Rural Cooperative Develoment Center with a $225,000 grant from the USDA Rural Development program.
AURI is ideally situated to operate such a center to promote development of cooperative businesses. Ths semi-autonomous state research organization has laboratories to help develop products and academic support for developing business plans and strategies that are equally important for bringing concept ideas into marketable products.
Minnesota 2020 has advocated such a development since April when it issued a report, Cooperatively Moving Minnesota Forward, which argued that despite Minnesota's history of cooperatrive development, the co-op business structures remain under-utilized tools for economic development in the state.
The AURI Rural Cooperative Development Center, however, doesn't complete the needs for co-op development assistance that would help Minnesota grow businesses. Given the USDA funding and the center's rural bent, it can only work with co-ops that will be formed in communities of less than 50,000 population.
Research and development from the center will nonetheless serve as models for people wanting to replicate such developments in larger urban areas. The new center will also gain knowledge and experience through collegial associatons. It has already received help from Wisconsin Cooperative Development Services in Madison, and has joined the Cooperation Works! network of 24 regional co-op development centers across the nation.
Posted in Economic Development | Related Topics: Agriculture Co-ops Business Growth Small Business