Supply Chain Strategies of the Coffee in the Pioneer North of Paraná: Competition, Collaboration, and Strategic Content

Abstract

This study aims to characterize the competitive and collaborative strategies adopted by companies and farmers in the coffee production chain in the Pioneer North of Paraná State and their effects on strategic content, with Porter’s Generic Strategies, Ansoff’s Product/Market Matrix and approaches to strategic content as a reference. The research took the form as a descriptive and interpretative multi-level multiple case study, using the qualitative method. The primary data were obtained through interviews with fifteen farmers, three coffee roasting companies and a soluble coffee industry. The results, presented by segment, identify strategies of market penetrating, through the predominance of cost leadership strategies that provide a temporary competitive edge in the best cases. Few cases of differentiation have suggested a sustainable competitive advantage. Therefore, the strategic position present in most participants in the chain is one of market penetration and, even in diversification cases, this is linked to cost leadership strategy. There was no integration and collaboration in the production chain. This was mainly due to lack of awareness of their possibilities.