Networks in Argentine Agriculture: a Multiple-Case Study Approach
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ISSN 0080-2107 Networks in Argentine agriculture: a multiple-case study approach Sebastián Senesi Recebido em 25/maio/2012 Fabio Ribas Chaddad Aprovado em 30/janeiro/2013 Hernán Palau Sistema de Avaliação: Double Blind Review Editor Científico: Nicolau Reinhard DOI: 10.5700/rausp1088 Sebastián Senesi, Mestre em Agronegocios y Alimentos, é Codiretor do Programa de Agronegocios y Alimentos na Facultad de Agronomía da Universidad Redes na agricultura argentina: um estudo de de Buenos Aires (UBA) (Buenos Aires – Argentina), caso múltiplo Professor de Economia y Gestão de Agronegocios y Alimentos e Competitividade de Cadeias A Argentina está entre os quatro maiores produtores de soja, Agroalimentarias na Maestría en Agronegocios y RESUMO girassol, milho e trigo, entre outros produtos agrícolas. As mu- Alimentos, Pesquisador da UBA Categoria V, Consultor em organismos públicos e empresas em temas de danças institucionais e políticas na década de 1990 incentivaram governança, planificação estratégica, qualidade e o desenvolvimento da agricultura na Argentina e na introdução redesenho organizacionais. de inovações de produtos e tecnologias (plantio direto, aumento E-mail: [email protected] do uso de agrotóxicos, transgênicos, GPS) e novos investimentos Endereço: em plantas de crushing em soja e girassol. Além de mudanças Universidad de Buenos Aires – UBA tecnológicas, uma revolução silenciosa ocorreu na produção Facultad de Agronomía Programa de Agronegocios y Alimentos agrícola: de uma agricultura de autoprodução ou propriedade para Avenida San Martín, 4453 uma agricultura com base no contrato. O objetivo neste trabalho é C1417DSE – Buenos Aires – Argentina explorar e descrever o surgimento de redes no setor de produção Fabio Ribas Chaddad, Engenheiro Agrônomo pela agrícola na Argentina. São apresentados e descritos quatro casos Escola Superior de Agricultura “Luiz de Queiroz” da que, atualmente, constituem cerca de 50% do plantio total de grãos Universidade de São Paulo, Mestre em Administração na Argentina: forma híbrida informal, trust, estrutura orientada para pela Faculdade de Economia, Administração e o investidor, e rede de redes. Em todos os casos, abordam-se as Contabilidade da Universidade de São Paulo, Ph.D. formas híbridas envolvendo um grupo de atores unidos por objeti- em Economia Aplicada pela University of Missouri vos comuns, principalmente para aumentar a produção em escala, (Columbia, Estados Unidos), é Professor Doutor no Insper – Instituto de Ensino e Pesquisa compartilhar recursos e melhorar a rentabilidade. Essas formas de (CEP 04546-042 – São Paulo/SP, Brasil). organização são altamente flexíveis e mostram grande capacidade E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] de adaptação aos desafios, além de serem competitivas, porque têm Hernán Palau, Mestre em Agronegocios y Alimentos, incentivos alinhados, flexibilidade e adaptabilidade. é Coordenador da Área de Pesquisa do Programa de Agronegocios y Alimentos na Facultad de Agronomía Palavras-chave: contratos, formas hibridas, rede de redes, da Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) (Buenos colaboração interfirma, relações. Aires – Argentina), Professor de Economia y Gestão dos Agronegocios y Alimentos e Competitividade de Cadeias Agroalimentarias na Maestría en 1. INTRODUCTION Agronegocios y Alimentos, Pesquisador da UBA Categoria IV, Consultor em organismos públicos e empresas em temas de governança, planificação Due to natural resource endowments and continuous productivity gains, estratégica e qualidade. Argentina is in a unique position to produce food, agricultural, and livestock E-mail: [email protected] R.Adm., São Paulo, v.48, n.2, p.281-294, abr./maio/jun. 2013 281 Sebastián Senesi, Fabio Ribas Chaddad, and Hernán Palau products. Perhaps not surprisingly Argentina is one of the lead- different actors participating in agricultural production and ing producers and exporters of agrifood products. Argentina commercialization. is among the four largest producers of soybeans, sunflower Producers developed complex organizational arrangements seeds, corn, and wheat; is also the world’s 5th largest export- and business relationships involving contractors, producers, er of wheat, the 2nd largest exporter of corn, the 3rd largest suppliers, processors, exporters, banks, and individual inves- exporter of sunflower seed and soybean, and the number one tors (some with no previous experience in the farming sector). exporter of sunflower and soybean oils and pellets. For the past These hybrid arrangements – that are neither markets nor 20 years, the agrifood sector has been a fundamental engine hierarchies – provided the institutional framework necessa- of economic growth as the main generator of export and tax ry to reduce transaction costs and build trust among agents, revenues in Argentina. such that contracts and exchange could continue to occur in a Traditionally, farming took place in small and medium sized highly uncertain institutional and international environment. family farms, using mostly their own land, labour, credits, and Nowadays unofficial sources estimate that about 50% of total agricultural machinery (CHADDAD et al., 2009). Producers agricultural production in Argentina is carried out by these owned enough equipment to cope with all required activities hybrid organizational forms. of the production season. In some specific cases, services were The objective of this paper is to explore and describe the contracted for machinery with a higher specificity level in re- emergence of new organizational forms in the Argentine crop lation to the area worked by the producer, such as harvesting production sector. Specific objectives are: to explain why these services. The scale of production was limited to land property, organizational forms emerged, and to describe their evolution and so were productivity and revenues. and governance structure. In the 1990s the Argentine economy was open to global- The paper is organized as follows. Chapter 2 describes the ization, free market rules were adopted, and state-owned theoretical framework and the methodology used. Chapter 3 companies were privatized. Hyperinflation was finally kept identifies the main institutional changes and the impact they under control with the implementation of the currency board had on the organization of farming and agribusiness in gen- that linked the local peso to the US dollar. As a result of these eral. Chapter 4 describes the organizational forms using the policy changes, the 1990s were a decade of economic stabili- netchain approach (LAZZARINI, CHADDAD, and COOK, ty and growth based on the convertibility rule (one peso-one 2001). Finally, conclusions and possible trends in the Argentine dollar). These institutional and policy changes fostered the agricultural organizational environment are described. development of Argentine agriculture and the introduction of innovative process and product technologies, including no- 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND -till cropping systems, fertilizers, agrochemicals, genetically PROCEDURES modified soybean seeds, precision agriculture systems (with the use of GPS), and new investments in modern, large-scale 2.1. Theoretical framework sunflower and soybean processing plants (ORDÓÑEZ and NICHOLS, 2003). In order to describe hybrid arrangements in the Argenti- In addition to these technological changes, a quiet revolu- ne agricultural sector the paper introduces Transaction Cost tion occurred in the way agricultural production was carried out Economics (COASE, 1937; KLEIN, CRAWFORD, and AL- and organized: from self-production (or ownership) agriculture CHIAN, 1978; WILLIAMSON, 1979 and 1985) and organiz (using own lands) to an agriculture based on contracts and ational interdependence (THOMPSON, 1967; LAZZARINI, organizational relationships. These institutional arrange- CHADDAD, and COOK, 2001; MÉNARD, 2004) theoretical ments were service contracts, land rental contracts, harvesting frameworks. contracts, future markets contracts, and insurance contracts, The Transaction Cost theory introduced by Coase (1937) among others. The agricultural production sector increasingly has become a standard framework for the study of organ- shifted to a large-scale business model, and farming expanded izations. Coase (1937) introduced the notion that firms and by using third-party lands in order to increase production while markets are alternative “institutional arrangements” to govern using the same capacity (fixed costs). transactions. In particular, he posited that the firm supersedes As production areas expanded, it became impractical for the market when the transaction costs of internal organization framers to move their own machinery around. Agents then are relatively lower than in the market. In this sense, firm arose for local suppliers of sowing services, crop-spraying, boundaries depend not only on technology, but also on or - harvesting, and pest control at the new production sites. In g anizational considerations; that is, on the costs and benefits other words, producers started to outsource to service providers of various organizational alternatives. Building on Coase’s activities that were previously vertically integrated. A new original insight, the Transaction Cost approach emphasizes that business model emerged to develop large-scale, high tech- vertical coordination can be an efficient means of protecting nology agriculture through contractual arrangements among relationshipspecific investments or mitigating other potential 282 R.Adm., São