Companies are part of the same economic world; they are facing the same economic imperatives. They must have the same management capacities, regardless of the company's nature or structure.
In a crisis situation, one of the key features that sets cooperatives apart from share-capital businesses is the fact that cooperatives redistribute their surplus based on the activities of all their members. Share-capital businesses, as their name suggests, redistribute their profits based on invested capital. Those are investors, and that mostly happens in public companies.
In the case of big companies like La Coop fédérée, our competitors are public companies. They must report their results every three months. Agri-food is a fluctuating sector. In periods of crisis, those companies' executives must report to their shareholders and explain why they had poor results that month, and why they may have more such results next year. Investors then tend to leave companies. However, our members don't leave us. They are users; they are our clients. They understand the situation because they need the cooperative in the long term. They accept the fact that the cooperative cannot redistribute money during a crisis year. Since their company is necessary, it must stay put.
I am a farmer. If I had invested capital and was expecting a return, in the case of a crisis in agriculture, I would take my capital and invest it in another area of activity. However, as I am a farmer, my company must endure. So I would not withdraw my capital. I am patient because that is important for my company, whose user I am. The same goes for agriculture. Whether we are talking about a cooperative in the energy sector or another industry, owners are users. So they are patient; they accept and understand crises.