Fairtrade Certification in the Fresh Fruit Export Sector in Brazil

Abstract

In Brazil, Fairtrade certification is applied to several products; however, one of the most outstanding is the fresh fruit segment. Transaction Cost Economics (ECT) was used in order to identify and analyze the existing contracts in the Fairtrade network of Brazilian Fresh Fruits, as well as to verify the type of governance structure of the network. The method adopted was the case study. It started with bibliographic research on the Fairtrade network and ECT. Then, the documentary research was carried out through the production and commercialization contracts and standards, made available by the production organizations and on the websites of Fairtrade International and Flo-Cert. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the agents involved in that network. The analyzes identified that the governance in the network is of the hybrid type and that Fairtrade International acts as a strategic center and has the responsibility to coordinate the entire network. Three types of contracts were also identified involving producer organizations (OPs), which link OPs to the Fairtrade network, traders, and their importers. The relationship that arises in contractual transactions on the network is trilateral and the contracts are of the neoclassical type, with discrete frequency. The state of knowledge reached from the analyzed contracts can be used in other studies, with an impact on the identification if there is a strengthening or weakening of the contractual relations between the agents involved in the Fairtrade network.