Last May, the Working Group of Young Cooperatives of Agro-Food Cooperatives of Spain was formed, made up of young farmers and ranchers from most of the Autonomous Communities. Today, June 9, the members of this group have met and have elected Inés Guillén Belloso, representative of Agro-food Cooperatives Castilla-La Mancha, as president of the Working Group (GT), and Cristian Martínez Pérez, from Cooperatives, as vice president. Agro-food of Navarra.

This new Working Group aims to make visible the group of young cooperative members, who will now have a body to propose measures and propose new projects, both within the internal framework of the Organization and with a view to achieving unity of action before the different administrations.

In addition, the Group will create a network of exchange and synergies between the group of young people and will develop actions to guide cooperatives to adapt to the needs of future members and thereby improve generational change.

At the same time, the new body will try to promote the incorporation of young people into the sector and especially encourage them to participate in cooperatives, in order to train the potential cooperative leaders of tomorrow.

To date, this Working Group of Young Cooperatives is made up of members of the Federations of Agro-food Cooperatives of Galicia, Aragon, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, Balearic Islands, Navarra, Asturias, Andalusia, Valencia and Castilla y León.

The group of young people, in previous meetings, already made clear the need to promote generational change in the Governing Councils of the cooperatives, although they are aware that at the same time it is very difficult to mobilize young people to participate. We must work from both angles, so that the current Governing Councils make an effort to incorporate young people into this type of body and also encourage young people to get involved.

The Working Group has dedicated part of the meeting to the design of the actions that will be promoted throughout 2022. Firstly, in the next organization of a webinar to present the program of training stays in model host farms (Cultiva 22) to young people from all over Spain, a program that will soon be launched by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

Secondly, for the end of October or the beginning of November, it has been agreed to organize a face-to-face meeting of young cooperative members, where they can work on the concerns and needs they have, and reinforce the generation of synergies of the entire network of young cooperative members at the state level. .

Inés Guillén is from Pedro Muñoz (Ciudad Real), she is 35 years old and is currently the manager of the Vitivinícola San José cooperative Sociedad Cooperativa de Castilla-La Mancha in Herencia, a first-grade cooperative dedicated mainly to the production of wines and musts in bulk.

Guillén has lived cooperativism since childhood "because my grandfather was a founding member, my parents are members and, now, I am also a member myself". She obtained a Diploma in Tourism from the University of Alicante and then studied a postgraduate degree in Winery Management and Wine Marketing at the University of Castilla-La Mancha. For 11 years he has been fully dedicated to working at the San José Cooperative, where he performs management and administrative tasks.

In 2007 she was elected spokesperson for the Group of Young Cooperatives of Agro-food Cooperatives Castilla-La Mancha. "I firmly believe in cooperative principles, in the strength of its partners and in commitment and effort as the main assets of success," she highlights.