New forms of rural organization: the Rural Warehouse Condominiuns

Abstract Considering the development of the agricultural sector in the country and political, economic and social changes, Brazil became one of the main producers and exporters of commodities in agribusiness. In addition, the logistical bottlenecks, especially the shortage in the warehousing, as well as the growing interest in Supply Chain Management and new forms of rural organization have gained importance for the productive chains. The objective of this article is to characterize the new rural organization called Rural Warehouse Condominiums. For this purpose, an applied, exploratory and descriptive research was carried out with the use of multiple case studies and literature review. The data collection was conducted through interviews, direct observations and documental analysis. It was verified that this new configuration is an expanding, viable and financially competitive model for the Brazilian agribusiness, which provides the reduction of the storage deficit and other logistics bottlenecks. In addition, they present innumerable advantages, such as the strategic commercialization of production, the reduction of storage costs and logistic costs and the increase of profit. This work contributes to the mapping of innovative practices in the storage sector and proposes a research agenda that can help on the topic.

摘要 鉴于本国农业领域的发展态势以及政治、经济与社会变革，巴西已成为农业综合企业大宗商品的主要生产国与出口国之一。此外，物流瓶颈（尤其是仓储资源短缺）以及供应链管理（Supply Chain Management）领域关注度的持续提升、新型农村组织形式的发展，在各生产链中的重要性日益凸显。本文旨在对名为农村仓储合作社（Rural Warehouse Condominiums）的新型农村组织进行特征刻画。为此，本研究采用多案例研究与文献综述相结合的方法，开展了应用性、探索性与描述性研究。数据收集通过访谈、实地观察与文献分析三种方式完成。研究证实，该新型组织模式对于巴西农业综合企业而言，是一种可扩张、具备可行性且财务竞争力较强的模式，能够有效缓解仓储短缺与其他物流瓶颈问题。此外，该模式具备诸多优势：可实现农产品的战略性商业化销售、降低仓储与物流成本，并提升盈利水平。本研究有助于梳理仓储领域的创新实践，并针对该主题提出了可供后续研究参考的研究议程。