Development of Agricultural Cooperatives for Revitalization of the Rural Community – Focused on the Case Study of ‘Sunkist’

Cooperatives are a fairly new form of economic system in Korea compared to the western nations, yet, it has caught many attentions since the Fundamental Cooperative Act was enacted in 2011. Korea, once a very traditional community-based society, used to develop similar systems such as dooreh and poomasi. Thus, cooperatives have been astonishingly gaining popularity in various aspects recently although the relevant laws were prone to hastily implementing lacking a complete study on the effects. In this context, this study premises that cooperatives can play a critical role in developing especially the rural areas by giving their members more elaborate services supplementing any setbacks caused by Capitalism and creating jobs as well as providing social welfare and amenity. For a case study, Sunkist is chosen to suggest as a role model of the farmers’ cooperatives.