Social ties in the commercial dynamization of small farmers agroindustry in the Uruguay River Basin-Rs-Brazil

Abstract

The construction of this article started from the reflections around the socioeconomic relations established in the commercialization between the owners of the family agro-industries, their suppliers, retailers and consumers present in the middle region of the Upper Rio Uruguay. In this sense, the research problem seeks to understand how social interactions dynamize the commercial relations established between actors belonging to the family agroindustrial chain? To better understand this phenomenon, the theoretical contribution of the New Economic Sociology was used, mainly the concepts of embeddedness and social relations networks, whose author is Mark Granovetter. The research was carried out with a sample of ten family agroindustries, ten suppliers, ten retailers and ten consumers indicated by peers, obeying the snowball technique. Semi-structured questionnaires were applied to these 40 actors. The results showed that most commercial relations between the actors are established by the logic of trust, reciprocity, kinship and affection, which maintains agro-industries on the long run as an opportunity for family income. However, when seeking expansion, they need interaction with other actors, enhancing greater sales, greater scale and innovation, through less intense relationships, with less trust. The agro-industries are rooted in the territory, the knowledge and production skills were brought by the colonizers for food security. It is concluded that family agribusinesses contribute in an essential way to social reproduction and the maintenance of family agriculture in the region.