Supporting Producer Groups – Increasing Producer’s Value Aded?

Abstract Cooperation between entities can be the basis for improved competitiveness. The Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic were able to draw on EU funds to support the formation of producer groups. Main objective was to investigate whether the funds have led to an increase of value added of products placed on the market. In the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic during the reporting period the sum of 44 million EUR was provided to support the establishment of marketing organizations, 305 producer groups were supported. Many of the supported entities are no longer active. In the Czech Republic, only 15 entities are still operating, but they do not have a significant impact on the increase of value added of the agricultural sector. In the Slovak Republic, entities supported in the first programming period (2004–2006) have a higher share of the generated value added. During the second funding period (2007–2013), the supported groups showed a negative value added. Given the characteristics of supported groups, the number of successfully supported groups, the reported features and the total value of generated value added, it can be suggested that most of the entities were established due to the relative ease of fundraising.