Variability in Quality and Management Practices in the Mango Supply Chain from Costa Rica

Produce quality is one of the features of any commodity that everyone has an opinion about, but quality is a complex concept. In one hand, quality is the consumer perception about a certain commodity an as well it is a relationship between all the intrinsic attributes of the commodity. It is argued that homogeneous management activities will increase the quality of the commodity. Reducing waste for example, but in a more generic way will reduce the variability of the commodity plus meeting the costumer needs and preferences. In this experimental article we try to disentangle the managerial activities that have an effect on the variability of the quality. For this purpose we have make use of the dispersion statistics such as standard deviation, standard error, deviation coefficient, meta-analysis and a regression analysis. We conducted a survey and collected 51 interviews of different actors in the supply chain of mango from Costa Rica, beside, we collected 10 mangos from each actor interview to analyze the intrinsic attribute of quality. We developed a proxy of quality as the ratio between the brix and the ph. We conclude that quality variability is affected positively related to technologic variations and socio-economic variations. In the case of the mango supply chain from Costa Rica the management differences among actors are dependent on the closeness to the consumer, therefore, actors closer to the consumer have higher variability in their indexes than those close to the production site.Variability, Supply Chain, Quality, Management, Agribusiness,

Variability in Quality and Management Practices in the Mango Supply Chain from Costa Rica

Produce quality is one of the features of any commodity that everyone has an opinion about, but quality is a complex concept. In one hand, quality is the consumer perception about a certain commodity an as well it is a relationship between all the intrinsic attributes of the commodity. It is argued that homogeneous management activities will increase the quality of the commodity. Reducing waste for example, but in a more generic way will reduce the variability of the commodity plus meeting the costumer needs and preferences. In this experimental article we try to disentangle the managerial activities that have an effect on the variability of the quality. For this purpose we have make use of the dispersion statistics such as standard deviation, standard error, deviation coefficient, meta-analysis and a regression analysis. We conducted a survey and collected 51 interviews of different actors in the supply chain of mango from Costa Rica, beside, we collected 10 mangos from each actor interview to analyze the intrinsic attribute of quality. We developed a proxy of quality as the ratio between the brix and the ph. We conclude that quality variability is affected positively related to technologic variations and socio-economic variations. In the case of the mango supply chain from Costa Rica the management differences among actors are dependent on the closeness to the consumer, therefore, actors closer to the consumer have higher variability in their indexes than those close to the production site

Informe técnico "Evaluación de posibles prácticas anticompetitivas en el mercado de abastecimiento y distribución de productos de consumo masivo : el caso de Costa Rica"

Versión 2008 disponible al: http://www.crdi.ca/uploads/user-S/12074943921Informe_Tecnico_CINPE_13_02_2008.do

Fair Trade and justice: a comment on Walton and Deneulin

In this article we first point out that the different conceptualisations of Fair Trade, which are sometimes analytically contradictory, actually form a coordinated set. Understanding the Fair Trade project is impossible without taking these interlinked conceptualisations into consideration. Second, this set basically forms a mechanism of structural, institutional and moral reforms that guide actions. In this way Fair Trade sets out to produce less injustice than is usually the case with the structures and institutions that govern conventional trade. Nevertheless, it does not try to define what a just society is or even to perfectly define ‘fair trade’. This implies the adoption of a comparative justice angle. It is precisely by linking comparative individual situations with the structures that produce these situations that relative justice can find its strength and purpose