Switzerland’s two largest supermarket chains Migros and Coop are consumer cooperatives, or enterprises owned by consumers and managed democratically to fulfill the needs of their members rather than seeking pecuniary profit.

In Korea, there are four major consumer cooperatives ― Hansalim, iCOOP, Dure and a coop run by Womenlink ― which have nearly 600,000 households as members.

ICOOP has about 170,000 members who pay an average monthly fee of 13,000 won to buy organic or pesticide-free agricultural produce, processed foods and manufactured goods at its online mall and 130 high street shops nationwide.

“ICOOP’s aim is to expand eco-friendly farming in Korea and provide high-quality foods at affordable prices to ensure food safety for a greater number of people,” Oh Mi-yea, chairperson of iCoop Consumer Activities, said in an interview with The Korea Herald.

“Our goals also include increasing the social leverage of cooperatives through our business. Integrity and transparency are the spirit of cooperatives. Coops like us can help change the situation where only the rich get to consume quality food and the poor have to put up with lousy or even unsafe food.”

Organic or pesticide-free agricultural produce sold at iCOOP is nearly half the price of that sold at local discount store chains.

This is possible because iCOOP charges its members only the logistics cost plus the prices it pays to its 2,900 producers whom they deal with directly, without any middlemen.

Like other consumer cooperatives, iCOOP covers all of its operational expenses with membership fees.

“The number of our members increased sharply after we started opening brick-and-mortar stores in 2006. People want to see what they are going to eat, and they liked what they saw at the stores,” Oh said.

“Products ordered online are delivered in three days. The producers send the goods to the nearest iCOOP logistics center (there are about 10 nationwide) from where they are delivered to the members’ homes. It took about 10 years to build the nationwide logistics network.”

Consumer cooperatives in Korea are required by law to sell eco-friendly agricultural produce. The law was recently revised so that they can also sell manufactured goods, although iCOOP sells very few of these.

As for processed foods, only about 20 chemical additives and 20 natural additives are allowed under iCOOP’s criteria, whereas some 600 additives are used in processed foods in Korea.

In Britain, co-ops played a key role in expanding fair trade.

“Fair trade is about providing a base for good producers to stand on their own feet. What is most important to the producers is maintaining stable sales. We let the producers focus only on producing by taking full responsibility for sales,” said Oh, who became an iCOOP member in the late ’90s.

“We expect about 25,000 new members to join this year and plan not to receive more than that because we have a set amount of products to be supplied under contracts with the producers.”

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)