La integración empresarial entre cooperativas agroalimentariasun análisis de las políticas públicas en España y Brasil

Resumen

The globalization of food markets has created a new model of production and trade bases on agro-industrial chains and on the value chains. In these, the capital is concentrated on the distribution sector, while producers became a small fraction of the profits. The distorted distribution of benefits reflects directly on agricultural cooperatives, whose origin are producers. However, the effects are different from those trading commodities and those formed by small producers whose production is oriented to the domestic market. Large landowners, who concentrate production and mainly commercialize their production to international markets with little or no industrialization, form the commodity cooperatives. Small producers, however, are competing against each other at the domestic markets and their profit margins are very small. In Brazil, due to the coexistence of both production and commercialization systems in the agri-food sector, there are two different models of public policies to promote the agribusiness. The first relates to the export of commodities and the policies of the Ministry of Agriculture supports it, Livestock and Food Supply -MAPA. For the cooperatives working for these markets, there are programs to support the formation of consortiums with the objective to increasing Brazilian exports. The second model of agri-food fomentation drives to the domestic market and small farmers, also supported by the policies of a second Ministry of Agriculture, The Ministry of Agro Development -MDA-, created in 1999 to help familiar agriculture and land reform. For the cooperatives formed by these farms, there are no policies of inter-cooperation and business concentration. The Spanish food cooperatives is basically formed by small producers As the Brazilian cooperatives they not take part of the commodities markets, their structures are atomized and geographically dispersed. The Spanish government, in this sense, promotes the integration of entrepreneurship among agricultural cooperatives. They do this through a series of measures, highlighting the institutional recognition and funding projects. However, the integration policies in Spain have not been able to promote the development from integrated cooperatives able to concentrate supply and exploit commercial synergies. One of the reasons highlighted in the literature and identified in this study to determine the deployment and effectiveness of policies to promote integration is the existence of three levels of government in this country: the European, the national and the regional formed by the Autonomous Communities -CCAA. The aid available for the promotion of cooperative integration comes from the FEADER and from national and regional governments. However, the Autonomous Communities plays the greatest role in the formulation and implementation of the aid policies. This difficult the achievement of a national development plan and open space for political interests (vote) influence on the distribution of this aid. In general, resources are used to promote projects witch purposes do not comply with objectives of the aid. The low business development of cooperatives in Spain and the cooperatives of small producers in Brazil, nevertheless, does not have the political aspects as vectors. There are other elements of social and cultural order that influence on the formulation and implementation of integration policies oriented to the cooperative enterprise. The lack of loyalty and the influence of the cooperative managers highlighted among them. The lack of corporate culture in these cooperatives makes them that not coordinate themselves to sue for efficient economic development policies, such as promoting economic integration. As identified in this study, producers have as priority the request for farm subsidies. Eventually, both Brazil and Spain, there is a necessity of a more objective treatment by the authorities, so that the development policies, implemented actually could contribute to the social wellbeing. The cooperatives should also organize better themselves in the sense of requiring these government policies, rather than those that fit economics handouts.