abstract:A large share of the agricultural cooperatives currently operating in both the European Union and North America have attributes that coincide with the characteristics of the traditional cooperative model - open membership societies, collective ownership, equal voting power, principles of equality and solidarity, ideological motivation, etc. This cooperative model is, however, constructed for making cooperative business efficient under specific economic conditions: as these conditions become lessprevalent in today's business world, a growing number of agricultural cooperatives are abandoning the traditional cooperative model, and a new cooperative model is evolving. The primary and secondary processing operations are organizationally separated, increasing the cooperatives' chances for forward integration in the processing chain. The primary processing is conducted within increasingly larger cooperative societies. The trade between the cooperative and its members becomes increasingly business-like. The secondary processing is done in private limited companies, owned jointly by the agricultural cooperatives, the farmer members and external investors, and these firms' business conduct resembles that of investor-owned firms.