Sistemas alimentares, ambientes institucionais e gôndolas supermercadistas: caminhos e descaminhos das agriculturas familiares no Nordeste do Brasil

Abstract

In the early 2000s, the Brazilian supermarket sector witnessed an intense process of concentration and multinationalization, resulting in the implementation of socio environmental responsibility policies that favored the entry of family farming into their supply chains. The examples of this type of initiative are the Caras do Brasil Program, run by the Pão de Açúcar chain, and the Clube do Produtor Program, run by the Walmart chain. These programs motivated the Brazilian Supermarket Association (ABRAS) to establish Technical Cooperation Agreements (ACTs) with the federal government in 2011 and 2018, with the aim of promoting the commercial insertion of the category in retail. The TCAs benefited around 14 family businesses, highlighting the complexities and restrictions inherent in this type of interaction. Considering the participation of only the northeastern cooperatives, only half of them managed to establish commercial relations. The COOPERAGRO and COOPERCUC entered into contracts, while COOPATSUL and COOPAFAB did not succeed in this regard. The objective of this thesis was therefore to examine the process of implementing the ACTs signed between ABRAS and the federal government, based on the experiences of the northeastern cooperatives in the respective agreements. It aimed to analyze the social and institutional dynamics that drove these cooperative food systems to establish commercial links with supermarkets, with special emphasis on the facilitating and restrictive factors of these commercial relationships. It was observed that both ACTs share in common a limited scope, a lack of transparency in the disclosure of the products purchased and the results achieved. It was also evident that the agreements implemented achieved far fewer results than expected. This is due to the lack of an adequate selection process for family businesses and the absence of specific policies to support the entry and permanence of family farming in supermarkets. The successful experiences in the states of Paraná, Bahia and Santa Catarina, which already indicated the necessary procedures to make this type of interaction viable, were not absorbed in the stages of formulating and implementing the ACTs. The analysis of the trajectories and institutional environments of the northeastern cooperatives identified a common issue: they all developed institutional arrangements for agroindustrialization and distribution through access to institutional purchasing programs. It was precisely this organizational capacity that led them to seek to establish relationships with supermarkets. This demonstrates the importance of developing public policies that promote interactions between family farmers, cooperatives and businesses actors, with the purpose of establishing strategies for adding value and creating their own brands. It is conclude, therefore, that in order to make supermarket supply chains more receptive to food produced by family farming, it is necessary, firstly, to promote changes in purchasing policies, making them more transparent and inclusive, by promoting contractual models favorable to small scale suppliers. Secondly, it is crucial to strengthen family farming cooperative food systems by providing infrastructure and technical advice. Finally, there is an urgent need to structure institutional environments that promote products of family origin as a means of combating rural poverty and promoting healthy eating among the population.