POs To Enhance Farmers Position In Global Value Chains Case Study: Apulia Region And Ionian Island

The strong integration of markets occurred in the last 20 years both in and outside Europe has determined an exponential growth of competitive pressure on the agricultural supply side, especially in less advanced and developed regions. The need to deal with increasingly complex markets and trade dynamics forces the agri-food industry to find new forms of organization, coordination and management to assure their survival and enhance their competitiveness. This is a central issue especially for smallholders since they face higher transaction costs and lower bargaining power in international markets, thus resulting in the inability to control price formation and to have a solid position in Global Value Chains. This paper proposes a model for aggregating agricultural producers in order to allow them to get access to the international markets, enhancing the competitiveness of their respective local and national sectors. In particular, the paper analyses the sustainability of aggregating agricultural producers and processors at a transnational level, thereby proposing an Association of Producer Organizations to put together stakeholders from Apulia and the Ionian Islands, two strategic regions in the Mediterranean area.