Resumo

MARTINEZ-CARRASCO PLEITE, Federico  e  EID, Maged. Agri-food cooperatives in Spain: quality strategies and differentiation of the sector. Rev. Mex. Cienc. Agríc [online]. 2015, vol.6, n.2, pp.375-389. ISSN 2007-0934.

In this paper the size and importance of agri-food cooperatives at European level is described by addressing the asymmetry of scale that occurs within value chain between their commercial actors at origin and destination. The situation of cooperative movement in the Mediterranean area is approached from the case study of Spain, performing a description of their main growth strategies and innovation. Despite the heterogeneous and fragmented its business structure, the national cooperative sector has high levels of competitiveness, showing high adaptability to the requirements that markets will impose in terms of scale, quality and product differentiation.

Palavras-chave : agri-food cooperatives; competitiveness; differentiation; quality; Spain.