The integration of cooperatives from family farming into a global value chain : The Beekeepers of the Northwest Brazil ; L’insertion des coopératives issues de l’agriculture familiale dans une global value chain : le cas des apiculteurs du Nordeste du Brésil

The difficulties of small farmers go back a long time. Several studies have been developed to solve their main problems. These include small-scale production, obtaining the market for these products, managing their small 'business', acquiring a financial return.The purpose of our thesis is not to transform small farmers to large, this mistake has already been made previously by various public policies in developing countries. Our goal is to provide a way in which they can, even if small, ensuring their quality to improve its product life cycle from production to sale in the market.However, we know that for a small farmer is not easy to enter into the world market individually. The consumer market needs continuous production, in quality and quantity. So, they need to develop collective actions that can insert them into this global supply chain.Why are we talking about the introduction of producers into the world market and not their introduction into local markets? Well, our context is based on small farmers in underdevelopment regions which do Not have the economic capacity to buy their products in the way to ensure the sustainability of their business, so the challenge is; insert farmers into global circuits.In this case, farmers will have a more equitable payment for their production and be able to 'fly on their own', from a capabilities approach, they should look for a form of organization that allows production with characteristics and quality similar, ensuring the packaging and transportation process, in addition to having financial and management potential to conduct negotiations with customers and suppliers. At that moment, we are wondering what is the apropriate legal form “Cooperative” or not.From several case studies we analyze two territories in the Northewest region of Brazil, one (Piauí) and the other (Ceará). We are clear that the management of SCM, support for beekeepers and quality control department are, among others, those that are at the origin of the success of the central cooperative of ...