Agricultural cooperatives in Norway

The agricultural cooperatives in Norway (Norwegian: Landbrukssamvirket) consists of 13 companies, each organised as independent farmer owned cooperatives. They cover four different areas for the farmers: refining and sale of produce, financial services, breeding and insemination, and retail of agricultural equipment. All the cooperatives cooperate through the company Norsk Landbrukssamvirke. In total the companies have a revenue of NOK 58 billion and have 18,000 employees. TINE and Nortura are each responsible for about a quarter of the revenue each. Though none of the cooperatives hold any monopolies, their dominant position periodical causes debate about the structure of the agricultural processing industry.