The effects of institutional food procurements on family farmers organizations at Vale do Ribeira – São Paulo - Brazil

Abstract:

The paper addresses the effects of the Food Acquisition Program and the National School Feeding Program on aspects of social organization and marketing in the context of four cooperatives and one banana growers association in the municipalities of Miracatu, Sete Barras, and Registro in São Paulo. The top managers and 38 producers were interviewed. The interviews took place between August 2017 and May 2018. The creation of cooperatives derived from the process of organizing producers to access such programs. For the direct and permanent sale of food, organizations had to learn and organize producers to meet requirements for fruit standardization and frequency of the supply. Investments were made in governance, physical structures, and logistics processes. The lease of a warehouse in Santo André - SP was an advance in the control of the commercialization process. The expansion of institutional sales promoted the strengthening of regional organizational ties, culminating in the creation of a second-generation cooperative. Thus, the aggregate production of farmers came to markets through cooperatives, allowing a greater proportion of the value generated in production to be left to the family worker.

Keywords:
family farming; cooperativism; market