Graciela E. Gutman

Impact of the Rapid Rise of Supermarkets on Dairy Products Systems in Argentina

The reconfiguration and consolidation of food retailing in Argentina during the 1990s profoundly changed the marketing system for food and agricultural products. The new commercial requirements and ‘rules of the game’ imposed by supermarkets on their suppliers have caused a substantial restructuring of supply chains — a process in which some suppliers fail. This article describes the changes in the past decade in the Argentine retail sector, and then focuses on the effects of those changes (and related changes in processing) on milk products supply chains. Its conclusions focus on the challenges specific to small farms and firms in the face of this transformation.

Biopharmaceuticals and firm organisation in Argentina: opportunities and challenges

In Argentina, some biotechnology firms operating in the human health sector managed to enter into the biosimilars segment of global biopharmaceutical markets at an early stage. These firms’ forms of organisation and their articulation with local science and technology infrastructure have played a key role in the development of business strategies in an institutional context that does not facilitate the resolution of the particular risks and uncertainties – be they technological, regulatory, or commercial – associated with these products. This paper examines the strategies of selected firms, using case studies. It postulates that firm organisation in economic groups, and the articulation in public/private networks enables local firms to successfully surmount the obstacles faced by innovative biotechnology firms in peripheral countries, which leads in turn to the achievement of technological and financial advantages.

Building capabilities to catch up with the biotechnological paradigm. Evidence from Argentina, Brazil and Chile agro-food systems

Latin American countries have been historically characterised by production structures highly reliant on natural resources. The recent diffusion of modern biotechnologies has reinforced this specialisation pattern. The cases of Argentina, Brazil and Chile show that, with different rates, scopes and directions, important advances have been made in the adoption of biotechnological products and processes associated with the specificities of their natural resource endowment, their industrial structure, their science and technology infrastructure, and the institutional and public policy context. This article discusses the opportunities these new technologies offer for changing the absolute (or comparative) advantages in the agro-food systems of those countries.