With annual production averaging over 20 million metric tons, Brazil is the second largest developing country producer of maize (after China) and the third largest in the world. This report analyses development and dissemination of maize research and technology in Brazil from a socio-economic...

This article analyses the results of a series of interviews conducted among leading firms in agrofood designed to assess the strategic importance of biotechnologies. Earlier analyses have emphasized either the revolutionary character of these technologies or the ability of oligopoly structure to...

A competição no sistema agroalimentar revela, atualmente, características semelhantes à de outros sistema produtivos, onde predominam os esforços para diferenciação na oferta de produtos. Atender às exigências da demanda tornou-se uma regra básica para a sobrevivência dos negócios,...

The explosive growth of food commodity markets in the wake of massive, sustained demand from the ‘emerging economies’ might seem to mark a rupture with the niche quality markets which many authors have identified as the dominant tendencies in agrofood since the 1980s and a return to the mass...

La Revista Integración & Comercio del BID incluye artículos referidos a las distintas manifestaciones del proceso de integración en América Latina y el Caribe, a la integración hemisférica y, también, a los procesos con igual orientación que se llevan a cabo en otras partes del mundo....

In this paper we explore the strengths and limitations of Global Value Chain (GVC) analysis and the concomitant merits of transaction cost and convention theory frames of references. We first situate GVC analysis against the background of an earlier filiere approach in the Latin American context...

Transformations in the food processing sectors of developing countries are increasingly seen as strategic from the point of view of export earnings, domestic industry restructuring and dietary issues. This article reviews a selection of the literature on these themes. It begins with a discussion...

Fair Trade is analysed as a new economic social movement to the extent that it is based on new forms of collective action and directs its demands primarily to the market rather than to the State. In addition, it is intrinsically a global movement harnessing development goals to new market...

Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) are currently at the centre of development assistance and planning in many countries and donor agencies. As such, they are potentially of enormous significance for children living in poverty. Based on a review of PRSP documents, authors' experiences and...