Agricultural cooperatives as subjects of agrarian legal relations

The article is devoted to the study of the main trends in the development of agricultural cooperation legislation and to the clarification of the place of agricultural cooperatives among subjects of agrarian legal relations. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the process of gradual liquidation of agricultural production cooperatives, which began in the early 2000s and ended with the adoption of the Law of Ukraine dated July 21, 2020 «About Agricultural Cooperation». A comparative characterization of agricultural service cooperatives and agricultural cooperatives which operates without profit, also agricultural production cooperatives and agricultural cooperatives which operates for profit, was carried out. The conditions for assigning «new» agricultural cooperatives to the group of agricultural producers are determined. The main directions of state financial support of agricultural cooperation are analyzed. The author came to the conclusion that the development of Ukrainian agrarian legislation shows a steady tendency to transform agricultural cooperatives either into processing enterprises or into business entities whose activities are primarily aimed at serving small commodity producers - farms. Thus, agricultural cooperatives are gradually losing the features inherent in agricultural commodity producers, which negatively affects, for example, on their number. This does not contribute to the implementation of such a business principle as ensuring economic diversity and equal protection by the state of all business entities (Article 6 of the Commercial Code of Ukraine), also ensuring food security of our country.