Relations and Influences in the Process of Conventionalization of Organic Markets in the Southern Region of Brazil: A Multilevel Perspective Analysis

RELAÇÕES E INFLUÊNCIAS ENTRE ATORES DO MERCADO ORGÂNICO NA REGIÃO SUL DO BRASIL: UMA ANÁLISE EM PERSPECTIVA MULTINÍVEL DO PROCESSO DE CONVENCIONALIZAÇÃO-BIFURCAÇÃO

Abstract

The organic markets from all around the world are changing fast. An example is the proliferation of standards and the entrance of new actors in the organic market, as the processors. In this paper, organic farmers, agro industries, retailers, consumers, and rural extension agents were consulted through qualitative research methods to better understand these changes and to assess the conventionalization-bifurcation process of organic markets in the Southern Region of Brazil. The relations and influences that exist between these actors were identified and analyzed. The theoretical approach used in this study comes from the Multilevel Perspective. This approach sustains that a novelty, like organic farming, can produce radical or incremental changes in a socio-technical regime, as the dominant agro-food regime, while connections between both are built. We observed that these relations and influences are of three main types: outsourcing and elongation of supply chains; restrictions in the commercialization of the farmer’s production; and the consequences, adjustments and commercial conditions established through contracts with retail chains besides commercialization in alternative networks. Through these findings, we identified a bifurcation in the organic markets where some actors demonstrate practices similar to agrifood dominant regime. In this process, the regime is changing, but so are the alternative networks. It indicates that once again the alternative agriculture is capable of reaffirmation by some ways.