Comercialização e ambiente institucional do agronegócio do leite de Sant'Ana do Livramento: uma análise a partir da constituição do arranjo produtivo local

Abstract

The milk agribusiness is of extreme importance for the Brazilian agricultural sector as it participates in the formation of income and employment for a large number of producers, being a source for socioeconomic development. In addition to fixing men in the countryside and reducing the rural exodus, and thus reducing social pressures in the urban area. The dairy farming in the municipality of Sant'Ana do Livramento evolved in the 2000s, reaching a production of 25.1 million liters in 2010, its institutional environment comprises issues related to macroeconomic policies, sectoral regulation, legal system , political environment and the interactions between the milk APL. Cooperation relationships, traditions and customs rooted over time in the productive activity are also factors with which the system will interact more directly to achieve its goals and activities related to dairy production. From this growth scenario, the objective of the research was to analyze the institutional environment of the milk agribusiness of Sant'Ana do Livramento with the establishment of the APL, paying attention to the characteristics of the cooperative and independent producers of the APL, in order to provide information and subsidies for the other agents that compose it. The study methodology consisted of a qualitative and quantitative research developed from the application of questionnaires to milk producers in different governance structures in order to describe and identify the characteristics of the institutional, organizational and marketing environment of the milk agribusiness. The results showed that for cooperative producers, the institutional environment is more consolidated, possibly because these producers find themselves more effectively in cooperativism and in the context of the APL, a structure that confers a greater concern with collectivism and reduction of asymmetry of information. The APL contributed to the reorganization of governance structures practiced by the milk agribusiness, previously in a price competition system structure. This change was generated by greater competitiveness in the sector, based on an approximation and dialogue between organizations in an attempt to seek alternatives to municipal agribusiness.