Actors and Actions Towards the Expansion of the Market for Organic Agriculture in Brazil

In recent years the growth of organic products and inputs markets for organic agriculture has been remarkable worldwide. A set of factors and actions of representatives from different segments of society are contributing to the growth of these markets. Inspired by studies of economic sociology and institutional analysis of the markets, in this study has identified and analyzed the strategies of certain actors who have played an important role in the expansion of this market in Brazil. Its purpose was to indicate how this market is being changed due to the action of large economic groups that are investing in this niche. In recent years, a particular set of investors related to the risk capital industry started to invest in companies related to the production and commercialization of organic products. An example is the largest franchise in the organic and natural products segment in Latin America, the Green World company. It was founded in Petrópolis, in Rio de Janeiro in 1987 by Jorge Antunes and his sister, Isabel Antunes Joffe. In 2009 the company was acquired by the private equity fund Axxon Group, which had by that time, 126 franchised units in operation. In 2014, the company’s 300 stores (ABVCAP, 2014) were sold to the businessman Carlos Wizard Martins. It is worth noticing the government policies directed to increase consumption of organic products; either purchasing organic products produced by family farmers; as also, providing support to organic producers seeking to export most of their production. These policies, though promote a convergence of interests between actors who hold opposing positions in the economic, cultural and political spectrum: family farmers little capitalized, with low education level, and only, partially integrated into the policies for the organic production’s market; and employers farmers with greater cultural and political capital, exploring the organic market, especially for exportation. The development of the organic inputs industry expands the access to resources that enable the conversion of farmers practicing conventional production systems towards organic production systems. On the other hand, the arrival of large economic groups illustrates the "modus operandi" of capitalism, that is, it may contribute to the expansion of this market, but it also, imposes new challenges to the development of organic agriculture and the social relations of those involved in the production network related to organic products.