9. A STUDY OF COST STRUCTURES OF DAIRY CO-OPERATIVES AND FARMER INCOMES IN EAST JAVA - Yusmichad Yusdja and Bambang Sayaka (Research Institute for Animal Production) and Paul Riethmuller (Department of Economics, The University of Queensland)

Yusmichad Yusdja, Bambang Sayaka
Centre for AgroSocioeconomics Research, Bogor, Indonesia

Paul Riethmuller
Department of Economics, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Most Indonesian dairy farmers are members of a co-operative. This can either be a milk producing co-operative (KPS) or a village co-operative (KUD). The farmers obtain cattle and feed through the co-operative on credit. They also sell their fresh milk to the co-operatives. Co-operatives are agencies that integrate the economic power of dairy farmers in the market for inputs and outputs. Therefore, co-operatives have an important role to play in improving efficiency and increasing dairy farmers’ income.

The co-operatives face some problems in dealing with dairy farmers. These problems include low levels of productivity and the inability of the operators of small farms to increase herd sizes. The most pressing problem is the seeming inability of the co-operatives to develop the smallholder dairy farms into economically successful businesses.

The objective of this chapter is to present information on the cost structure of co-operatives (or KUDs), and in particular to analyse the dividends distributed to their members. It also attempts to analyse how the KUD determines the price of fresh milk received by the farmers. Specifically, it will describe the cost structure of the KUD in one budget year and examine whether the cost structure influences farm gate price and farmer’s dividend.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Most of the following discussion is based on Sri-Edi Swasono (1985). Basically, KUD operations are governed by two principles. Firstly, KUDs operate their business with the broad objective of minimising costs or maximising benefits to the member farmers. Secondly, KUDs help their members to obtain cheaper priced inputs and at the same time to obtain a selling price for the farm’s output that is as high as possible.

If KUDs applied the principle of private companies, they would operate their businesses to gain the maximum benefit for the KUDs themselves but not for other firms co-operating with the KUD. These other groups include firms that supply goods and services to the co-operatives and also the dairy farmer members. Such a philosophy would encourage KUDs to behave in a monopsonistic manner and dictate price to member farmers and other input suppliers. If KUDs followed the principle of obtaining the lowest price inputs, they would help the smallholders earn maximum possible profits. This implies that costs would be kept to a minimum. Under the second approach, the KUDs would make an economic profit and this would increase as smallholder participation in dairying grew.

Each member of the KUD has an equal vote and important decisions are decided by a meeting of the members. If co-operatives were to behave as private companies, the share holders would authorise the KUD officials to operate the business and the KUD profits would be distributed to the members. However, if KUDs operate as an intermediary between the dairy farmers and the processors, all decisions would need to be made by the members.

KUDs prioritise their services to members. Problems can arise with respect to the businesses operated by the co-operative and the services that the co-operative provides to its dairy farmer members. The farmers, as producers who rely on the assistance of KUDs, expect it to minimise its operating costs. This will help the farmers achieve high levels of profits. On the other hand, KUDs also have their own economic objectives and expect that their members will help them achieve these objectives. One way the relationship between a KUD and its members can be examined is through the dividend or profit payment of a KUD. The profit received by KUDs from each business unit is distributed to the members at the end of year. The greater the profit, the greater the member’s income. However, not all of the profit earned by the KUD is distributed to members. Some is retained by the co-operative.

METHODOLOGY FOLLOWED IN THE ANALYSIS

One approach that could in principle be used to investigate the economic characteristics of co-operatives would be to estimate either a profit or a cost function for a sample of co-operatives. However, this estimation requires information on profits (or costs) and input prices. Such information was not available for a sufficiently large number of co-operatives for this approach to be used. Instead, the analysis will be done through assessment of the cost structure of the dairy cattle unit and its position among the other business units in the co-operatives.

To analyse the efficiencies of KUDs, a comparison is made between KUDs of different sizes. The analysis concentrates on the dairy cattle business unit, since this has a greater level of activity than other business units. Furthermore, for the sample that was examined, most of the members of the co-operative were dairy farmers. Besides cost structure, dividend payments generated from dairy cattle business unit will be examined and compared with dividends from other business units. All of the analysis will be descriptive using concepts applied by Gittinger (1982).

The study was conducted in East Java, which is one of Indonesia’s largest milk producing areas. As mentioned already, the units analysed are KUDs which have dairy farming as their largest business unit. The KUDs in East Java were stratified by total milk produced in 1994 and then 13 KUDs (or 20 per cent of the population) were selected randomly (KUD Jawa Timur, 1994). The quantity of milk produced by the sampled KUDs is shown in Table 9.1 along with the quantity of milk produced by all KUDs in East Java. There were 44 KUDs in the population producing less than 5000 litres of milk per day. Nine of these were sampled. Milk production was greater than 5000 litres per day for 11 others in the population, and four of these were sampled. None of the 11 co-operatives that are now inactive were sampled. Most of the KUDs in the sample (8) are located in Malang district and the rest are in Pasuruan district. Data were collected through interviewing the KUD officials and the managers of the dairy cattle unit in each KUD using structured questionnaires. Cost structures were analysed through making use of information in the annual reports of the KUDs.

Table 9.1. Distribution of KUDs, by daily milk production and the number of KUDs sampled in East Java

Group	Milk production (litre/day)	Number of KUDs in East Java	Total KUDs sample
A	over 20000	5	2
B	10000 - 20000	1	0
C	5000 - 10000	7	2
D	less than 5000	41
	a. 500		2
	b. 1500		2
	c. 2500		2
	d. 5000		3
E	Non active	11	0
Total		65	13

THE DAIRY CO-OPERATIVES

Characteristics of the KUDs

At the time of the study, there were 65 dairy co-operatives in East Java and all of these were members of the GKSI. As explained in Chapter 8, GKSI classifies all of the KUD into five groups based on total production per year, namely A (strong), B (potential), C (weak), D (very weak), and E (non active). The classification is based only on the ability of the KUD to produce milk without considering the performance of farmers individually. It is possible that some dairy farmers of group E (weak co-operatives) have better performance than those of group A (the strong co-operatives).

The KUD classification applied by GKSI without regard to other indicators, such as productivity, production structure and efficiency level, suggests that that GKSI considers only total fresh milk produced by KUDs to be important. This may be, because GKSI’s income is mainly generated from dealing in fresh milk.

Table 9.2 shows the distribution of KUDs by the groups into which the GKSI has classified them. There are some interesting points, namely:

• 63 per cent of KUD’s have a relatively low total production of fresh milk, and are classified as very weak (D). Although this group make up the majority of co-operatives in East Java, they only produce a small proportion of the fresh milk marketed to the GKSI. On the other hand, KUDs of group A and B make up only about 10 per cent of the total number of co-operatives, but they produce 66 per cent of the total production. Almost all of the total fresh milk production of the GKSI in East Java depends on the five KUDs of group A.
• most (63 per cent) of dairy farms belong to KUDs classified as group A. The strength of group A co-operatives does not necessarily derive from high productivity levels, but reflects the fact that the co-operative comprises a large farmer and cattle population. In fact group C co-operatives had cows that were the most productive. This is shown by the fact that they were responsible for 14 per cent of daily milk production from 9 per cent of cows.
• in general, to achieve a high level of production, the policy of the GKSI and KUD’s has been to increase total dairy co-operatives, total dairy farmers, and distribute more cattle to the farmers.

Table 9.2. KUD distribution by GKSI classification in East Java, 1994

	Unit	Group
		A	B	C	D	E	Total
KUD	no	5	1	7	41	11	65
	%	8	2	11	63	17	100
Farm	‘000	160	4	44	44	2	254
	%	63	2	18	17	1	100
Dairy cattle	‘000	59	2	8	19	0.4	88
	%	67	2	9	21	0.5	100
Milk production	000 litre	216	10	47	52	0	325
	%	66	3	14	16	0	100

Source: GKSI, East Java Regional Coordinator

Notes:

Group A = production over 20000 litres/day
Group B = production 10000 - 20000 litres/day
Group C = production 5000 - 10000 litres/day
Group D = production under 5000 litres/day
Group E = production 0 litre/day.

Table 9.3 shows the milk production of KUDs from 1992 to 1994. During this period there was generally no change in the composition of each group. Hence, during this period there was not much change in the level of fresh milk production. Two of the KUDs that were classified as group E in 1992 had shifted to other groups by 1994. One KUD had moved to group A over the period covered by the table.

Table 9.3. Milk production in sample KUDs by GKSI classification, East Java

Group	Average production (litres per year)	1992	1993	1994	Growth rate 1992-1994 (%)
A	47143000	4	4	5	12.5
B	18714000	1	2	1	0.0
C	7364000	5	4	7	20.0
D	1321000	42	43	41	-1.2
E	0	13	12	11	-7.7
Total		65	65	65	0.0

Source: GKSI, East Java Regional Coordinator

Table 9.4. Cows per farmer, KUD members

Group	Production (litres/year)	Total farmers	Lactating cows	Dry cows	Total milking cows	Heifers	Total
1	500	179	0.1	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.9
2	1500	6225	1.2	0.2	1.3	0.3	1.6
3	2500	789	1.3	0.4	1.7	0.1	1.9
4	4000	599	1.5	0.3	1.8	0.4	2.3
5	10000	928	2.7	0.5	3.1	0.7	3.8
6	15000	1948	0.9	0.1	1.0	0.3	1.3

Source: GKSI, East Java Regional Co-ordinator.

• The number of dairy farmers has decreased by 1.4 per cent per year over the three year period from 1992 to 1994. Most of the decline occurred in group A. Here the cattle numbers fell by 2.9 per cent per year. Farmer numbers in other groups remained relatively constant. This could be an indication that dairy cattle farming is not attracting farmers and that many farmers have experienced failure of their enterprise.
• The trend of cattle population is to increase on average by 2.5 per cent per year, with a range of from 1.9 to 8.4 per cent per year. However, total cows owned by farmers do not change, but remain at two to three head per farmer. Hence, the population increase does not influence average ownership significantly. Nevertheless, the production increase per farmer is 11 per cent each year. The increase in production is due to population increase and is not caused by productivity increase. The rate of productivity increase for the three years is 6.5 per cent from 3.2 litres per head per day.

Some important conclusions of the discussion above are:

• Most of the KUDs are not particularly efficient in terms of production per cow. Also, the situation of the farmers is weak because of the low level of cattle ownership.
• Increases in fresh milk production are mostly due to increases in cattle numbers. Cattle productivity has made little or no progress.
• Indonesian dairy farmers have nowhere near the five to ten lactating animals that industry representatives believe farmers need to be viable. On the basis of the 1994 population of cattle, farmer numbers would need to fall by between 40 and 50 per cent for the target to be reached.

Table 9.5. Trends of farmers, cattle, and fresh milk production of KUD in East Java, 1992-1994

Item	1992	1993	1994	Growth rate 1992-1994 (%)
Group A
- Farmers	14894	14045	14045	-2.9
- Dairy cow population	53069	53300	55036	1.9
- Production (L)	178771	191952	194992	4.5
- Production/farmer (L)	12.0	13.7	13.9	7.8
- Production/cow (L)	3.4	3.6	3.5	2.6
- Cows/farmer	3.6	3.8	3.9	5.0
Group B
- Farmers	1948	1948	1948	0.0
- Dairy cow population	3928	3785	3785	-1.8
- Production (L)	16232	19295	20616	13.5
- Production/farmer (L)	8.7	9.9	10.6	13.5
- Production/cow (L)	4.1	5.1	5.4	15.9
- Cows/farmer	2.0	1.9	1.9	-1.8
Group C
- Farmers	3416	3416	3416	0.0
- Dairy cow population	7520	7938	8785	8.4
- Production (L)	30919	38323	41214	16.6
- Production/farmer (L)	9.1	11.2	12.1	16.6
- Production/cow (L)	4.1	4.8	4.7	7.1
- Cows/farmer	2.2	2.3	2.6	8.4
Group D
- Farmers	6759	6874	6870	0.8
- Dairy cow population	20416	20960	21504	2.7
- Production (L)	48039	58279	68075	20.9
- Production/farmer (L)	7.1	8.5	9.9	19.7
- Production/cow (L)	2.4	2.8	3.2	17.3
- Cows/farmer	3.0	3.0	3.1	1.8
Total
- Farmers	27017	26283	26279	-1.4
- Dairy cow population	84933	85983	89110	2.5
- Production (L)	273961	307849	324897	9.3
- Production/farmer (L)	10.1	11.7	12.4	11.0
- Production/cow (L)	3.2	3.6	3.6	6.5
- Cows/farmer	3.1	3.3	3.4	3.9

Source: GKSI East Java Regional Coordinator

Dairy Cattle Business Unit

All KUDs surveyed have about 15 business units and usually the dairy cattle unit is the biggest unit. The other businesses that the KUDs are involved in include milk processing, feed stuff processing and supply, fertiliser provision, saving and credit, electricity payments, the operation of a general store, native chickens and rice production.

In regard to the dairy cattle business unit, the KUD does not have the primary responsibility for its operation. Rather, the day to day running of the dairy farms is the responsibility of the farmer members. The KUD collects the fresh milk, processes it and then markets it to processing industries, and in some cases direct to the general public. The relationship between the KUD and its members is that of buyer and seller, and there is no contractual agreement between them. The farmers are free to make decisions relating to their own farm business.

The farmers are independent milk producers because they have to decide anything related to their business by themselves. On the other hand, the farmers pay for the services of the KUD and take all risks of their business. The KUD is the biggest buyer of fresh milk produced by the farmers. Although the farmer is under no contractual obligation to do so, in practical terms each farmer has to sell their fresh milk to the KUD of which they are a member. They are unable to sell the milk to other KUDs because of the impracticability of transporting milk over long distances. Therefore, in theory, the KUDs are in a monosopnistic position in determining fresh milk prices. In practice, the GKSI and KUD decide the milk price at farm level. If the farmers were independent, they would be able to sell their own fresh milk to the milk processing industries directly and it is possible that they would get higher price. The milk is sold by the GKSI to processors. The milk processing industries determine the price of fresh milk bought from the GKSI, not that of the farmers or KUDs.

Cost Structure

As mentioned previously, the 13 KUD were selected using stratified random sampling. Six strata were defined on the basis of daily production. These were 500 litres, 1500 litres, 2500 litres, 5000 litres, 10,000 litres and 15,000 litres.

It can be seen from Table 9.6 and Table 9.7 that the cost to the KUD vary from Rp. 60 to Rp. 147 per litre of fresh milk. This is due to variation in policies implemented by the KUDs in taking the fees. The total fees depend on activities of the KUD. With the exception of the two smallest co-operatives, the fees tend to decrease as the production increases.

Due to the fees taken by the KUD, the farm gate price of fresh milk ranges from Rp. 475 to Rp. 525 per litre (Table 9.6). On the other hand, the fresh milk price set by the processing industries varies from Rp. 588 to Rp. 660 per litre. The price variation is due to quality difference of fresh milk produced by the farmers. Thus, the farm gate price is not determined by costs of dairy farming and therefore the farmers may not cover costs.

There are two main factors affecting the farm gate price of fresh milk.

The first of these is the quality of the fresh milk, where quality is determined by density and fat content. The higher the fat content, the higher the price of fresh milk. However, fresh milk price based on this quality is difficult to implement. Fat content and water content are recorded every morning and afternoon in the collecting points. On the other hand, the price of fresh milk is decided once a month or in some cases, every two months. When the processing industries receive a milk shipment, they also measure the fresh milk quality. The fresh milk quality measurement is for all milk - it is not measured for each farmer. Thus, the price set by the milk processing industries is the price received by the GKSI and transferred to the KUD. The KUDs then pass on this price to the farmers, less costs.

The costs incurred by the KUDs for all of their businesses are financed by the dairy business unit, regardless of whether the business is related to the dairy farm. This will be discussed in the next section.

Returns to the KUD from the milk business range from a loss of Rp. 35 to a profit of Rp. 16 per litre of fresh milk. The economic scale of the KUDs does not seem to affect the level of their profits.

Table 9.6 shows that there are three groups making losses. These were the smallest (500litres per day), and the medium sized KUDs (2500 litres per day and 4000 litres per day). In each annual report of the KUD, almost all dairy cattle business units are profitable, but overall KUD’s business generate losses. This is due to the costs expended by KUD to carry out all their activities. Obviously, the co-operatives did not produce these milk volumes exactly on any particular day. Rather, the production levels used to stratify the opulation were approximate and represent “average” daily production.

Table 9.6. Average cost and profit received by KUDs per litre of milk, by daily production of the KUD, 1994

Item	Daily production
	(500 L)	(1500 L)	(2500 L)	(4000 L)	(10000 L)	(15000 L)
Cost	144	60	147	129	119	110
Farm gate price	479	521	475	492	525	519
Total costs	623	581	677	621	644	628
Return	607	588	642	602	660	635
Profit	-16	8	-35	-19	16	6

Table 9.7. Percentage distribution of costs per litre of fresh milk by daily production of KUDs

Item	Daily production
	(500 L)	(1500 L)	(2500 L)	(4000 L)	(10000 L)	(15000 L)
Salaries and bonus	12	21	22	18	18	15
Organisation and administration	30	36	2	1	19	15
Buildings and vehicles	21	14	5	9	29	14
Depreciation	13	0	13	13	6	5
Service of postharvest	10	18	1	0	0	2
Electricity and telephone bills	5	0	2	0	0	4
Technical services	7	5	0	0	0	9
Interest rate, debt, tax	3	0	46	31	20	16
Inv.	0	0	5	0	7	10
Others	0	7	3	27	0	9
Total (%)	100	100	100	100	100	100
Cost (Rp./litre)	144	60	147	129	119	110

Profit Allocation

To gain an idea of how the profits of the dairy business unit fit in with the total profits of the KUDs, it is necessary to have details of all KUD activities. Table 9.8 shows the costs, revenues and profits of each business unit of the KUDs. These KUDs operate 13 businesses. Not all of the businesses earn profits; in fact only six units are profitable and the rest generate losses. The profits gained by the dairy cattle business unit is the greatest at Rp. 220 million. On the other hand, profits of other units are relatively small.

Even though the profit of the dairy cattle units are Rp. 220 million, it is not distributed just to the dairy farmers. The profit belongs to the KUD and the KUD officials may utilise it for other activities or distribute it to all members. Thus the profit gained by the dairy cattle unit might be used to cover the losses in other business units. Overall profit of the average KUD is Rp. 41.8 millions. When costs expended for other activities are calculated in the costs and returns of the KUD, the profit of the dairy business unit can be negative, as Table 9.6 showed.

Not all the profits of KUDs are distributed to the members. Some are allocated for education, social development etc. The KUD generally uses more of the profits to operate the business of the KUD, not to improve the farming operations of the members. This is in accordance with business principles of the KUD. If the profit of the dairy business unit were to be distributed to the dairy farmers, they would get an income increase of up to Rp. 280,000 per year. Furthermore, if the costs of dairy business unit were to be minimised, the farmers would receive a higher level of income. The KUD policy of separating the business of the members and that of the KUD results in low incentives for dairy farmers. It makes them reluctant to improve production and to develop their farming operation.

Table 9.8. Distribution of income, costs, and profits of KUD business units

Business unit	Income	Operating costs	Admin & general costs	Other costs	Total costs	Profit
	(Rp ‘000)	(Rp ‘000)	(Rp ‘000)	(Rp ‘000)	(Rp ‘000)	(Rp ‘000)
Fresh milk	2261044	348112	132014	1559979	2040104	220940
Electricity	9382	7373	899	0	4272	5110
Price	111908	472	83	106909	107464	4444
Soybean cake	11137	958	1807	4455	7219	3918
Credit	7356	2827	2558	0	3385	1971
TVRI tax	3045	1535	300	0	1836	1209
Sugar	30718	2496	307	27819	30622	96
TRI	411	461	65	0	526	-114
KUT	240	3	366	0	369	-129
Food	41595	3159	191	38466	41817	-221
Fertilisers	126080	6498	647	121241	128386	-2306
Cipro	267630	5668	44	275221	280933	-13303
General	15612	99207	88313	7852	195372	-179760
Total	2886159	474768	227593	2141943	2844305	41855

CONCLUSION AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

In East Java during the three year period 1992 to 1994, there were 80 KUDs, of which 65 per cent are either very weak or inactive. There was little or no increase in total members, and in the cattle population. Most dairy farmers have only one lactating cow with a production rate of 3000 litres per year or less. This is the main reason why milk production levels in East Java have only grown slowly.

At the KUD level, some findings are as follows:

• Total costs for fresh milk production vary among KUD and there is no clear relationship between scale and expenses. It could be concluded that the KUD business may not be efficient and has a number of different structures in different KUD.
• As milk production increases at the KUD level, the profit per litre tends to decline. Therefore, the farmers are not encouraged to expand milk production. KUDs apparently prefer to increase total members and total cattle to expanding the ownership of cattle per farmer. This policy is more profitable for KUDs because total production of milk is their main concern. The KUDs seem to pay little attention to productivity at the farm level.
• Cost structures of KUDs do not help farmer profitability. The relationship between the KUDs and their membership is based on economic principles and it seems to cause the KUDs to behave in a monosopnistic fashion.
• The profits from the dairy cattle business unit are not distributed to the farmers. KUDs have many activities involving a range of inputs and a variety of different outputs. Profit distribution is the authority of KUD and its management is not obligated to return the profits from the dairy business to the farmers in that industry.
• There should be a policy in which a KUD has to operate one business unit only, for example dairy cattle, and all of the members should be dairy farmers. On the basis of the information presented here, farmers would have higher profit levels. These profits should be distributed to the farmers in accordance with the volume of milk the farmer delivers to the KUD. Profits generated by dairy farming would not be lost to the farmers in the industry through the co-operative cross subsidising less profitable business units. An alternative to having the co-operative specialising only in dairying would be to operate each business unit separately to other business units. This would require tight financial control at the co-operative level to ensure costs are assigned to the enterprise incurring them.
• The KUDs now operating need to restructure their business units. The units making losses should be carefully investigated to identify areas where cost savings or productivity improvements could be made. If these units continue to operate at a loss, they should be closed down, unless there are good social reasons for their continued operation.
• Determination of the farm gate price of fresh milk has to be based on milk quality and the price that the processing industry is prepared to pay. Cost determination at KUD level should be approved by the members and given legal status by the government. This system could mean that the farmers receive a better price and the co-operatives have a better chance of being profitable.
• When initiating programs to increase the production of milk the GKSI and KUD should not focus on merely increasing milk production via increasing the number of farmers and cattle. Rather, the focus should be on encouraging existing farm units to operate more efficiently and produce a higher level of output without increasing cattle numbers.

REFERENCES

KUD Jawa Timur (1994) Bundel Laporan Tahunan Keuangan 13 KUD Contoh. GKSI Jawa Timur.

Puslitbangnak (1991) Penelitian Pengembangan Sistem Usahatani Sapi Perah di Jawa. Puslitbangnak. Bogor.

Gittinger. J.P. (1985) Economic Analysis of Agricultural Projects, UI Press, Johns Hopkins.

Sri-Edi Swasono (1975) Sistem Ekonomi dan Demokrasi Ekonomi, UI Press, Jakarta.