History

          The Mirkovo lending, savings and agricultural society Oralo established on 26 October 2890 in Mirkovo Village, Pirdop District is considered to be the first cooperative in Bulgaria. The statute of the cooperative was drawn up by Todor Yonchev, at the request of Todor Vlaykov, and is fully European. A fact indicative of the beginning of the cooperative movement in Bulgaria is that the first cooperatives in our country were born and were established mainly at the initiative of the intellectuals, which are the first supporters of the cooperative ideas. The first leaders and ideologists of the cooperatives originate mainly from the circles of the Bulgarian Agricultural Bank. One of them is Asen Ivanov, born in 1869 in Veliko Tarnovo, the son of a trader, Swiss alumni, graduated law in Geneva. As a top officer of Bulgarian Agricultural Bank he was faced with the open issue how to organise at best the lending to farmers with a short-term personal loans. This is why at his recommendation the bank focused its activities on the establishment of agricultural lending societies.

          The beginning of the consumer cooperatives in Bulgaria was laid with the establishment of the officers' consumer society Opit in the town of Shoumen on 1 July 1895.

          The solid foundations laid for the Bulgarian cooperatives allowed the Bulgarian cooperative movement to join the International Cooperative Alliance, back at the beginning of the 20th century, in the remote 1903, through the consumer cooperative Bratski Trud - Sofia. The Bulgarian cooperatives have two delegates at the Budapest Congress of the Alliance – Asen Ivanov, as a general delegate and Hristo Chakalov, as a delegate of Bratski Trud cooperative, in the capacity as its President.

          To regulate the activities of the cooperatives established the first Bulgarian cooperative law was passed in 1907 – the Law on Cooperative Societies. It gave a strong impetus for the development of the cooperative movement in our country.

The fast development of the process of establishment of the rural lending cooperatives, as well as other types of cooperatives (consumer, crafts, fishing, tobacco, animal breeding, vine growing and wine producing, forestry, etc) at the beginning of the 20th century gave rise to the necessity for their uniting and the establishment of unions – regional and national. The need for such regional and central unions was felt more intensely and the outstanding activists in the rural cooperatives considered the establishment of regional cooperative organisations. Thus, in the 20ies of the 20th century the cooperatives of all branches of the wide cooperative spectrum started establishing their regional and national unions and headquarters. The uniting process was based on territorial and branch principle and it can be said that the Bulgarian cooperatives almost fully adopted the European and global cooperation model.

          The first national union was established in November 1907 – The Central Union of Bulgarian Agricultural Cooperatives. In 1914 it was renamed to General Union of the Bulgarian Agricultural Cooperatives. It became one of the main initiators of the establishment of the common cooperative union in Bulgaria called the Central Cooperative Union.

          21 cooperative unions and headquarters were functioning at the beginning of 1947. They were the grounds for the establishment of the Central Cooperative Union in October 1946. On 2 April 1947 it was registered in the company commercial register by virtue of pronouncement No  949 of Sofia District Court, Company Division (State Gazette, issue 78/05 April 1947)

          The founders of the doctrine of the Central Cooperative Union are 8 unions and headquarters. „The General Union of the Bulgarian Agricultural Cooperatives”; „The General Union of the Crafts Cooperatives”; „Forest Cooperative Union”; „Union of Tobacco Cooperatives”; „Cooperative Headquarters of Vine Growing and Wine Producing Cooperatives”; „Vedoma”- the headquarters of the clerk cooperatives; „Union of the Railway Worker Cooperatives” and „Zadruga”- a limited liability company of the popular banks, which merged into one limited liability cooperative society named Central Cooperative Union – Coopcentre”, domiciled in Sofia for a period of 101 years.

  On 3 July 1947 the Management Board accepted as members further 12 cooperative headquarters and unions, namely: „Nectar” – apiculture cooperative headquarters; „Napred” – united cooperative headquarters; „Union of the Cattle Breeding Cooperative Societies ; „Union of the Horse Breeding Cooperative Societies”; „Bulgarian Fishery Cooperative Headquarters”; „Bulgarian Bird Breeding Cooperative Headquarters”; „Union of the Sheep Breeding Cooperative Societies”; „Union of the Pig Breeding Cooperative Societies”; „Union of the Automobile Cooperatives”; „Union of the Labour – Construction Cooperatives”; „Animal Breeding Headquarters” Ltd. and „Balkancoop Transpred” AD.

          Thus two unions are functioning by the end of 1947: Central Cooperative Union (uniting 20 unions and headquarters) and General Union of Popular Banks, the existence of which ceased with the passing of the Law on Banks in December 1947. In 1949 LCAF (departments to the universal cooperatives) spin off the CCU system and are transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture and State Property.

In 1951 the labour – production crafts cooperatives also demerged and the same year they established Central Union of LPC.

          With the separation of LCAF and LPC the universal cooperatives started dealing mainly in trade, purchasing and production of foods of local importance and adopted the name consumer cooperatives. After 1960 consumer cooperatives united into District Cooperative Unions on the basis of the administrative – territorial separation of the country, and they in turn became members of the Central Cooperative Union, as they are today too.