The Influence of Collaboration Initiatives on the Sustainability of the Cashew Supply Chain

Abstract

Abstract:Collaboration is emerging as a requirement for strengthening relationships among supply chain members and sustainability is rising as a real-world solution for different environmental issues. There are numerous studies that approach both perspectives, but there are still many questions about their relationship, mostly in the agri-food industry. Hence, this paper aims to address the influence of collaboration initiatives on the sustainability indicators of the cashew supply chain (SC). To reach this objective, a case study was performed among farmers belonging to the Cooperative of Cashews in the Piauí state (COCAJUPI), a local cooperative in Northern Brazil. Attending to the results, it is possible to state that the collaboration initiatives that have higher levels of implementation among research companies are the "trust among supply chain members" and the "sharing of standards information". Moreover, the size of companies in the cashew SC does not influence the level of implementation of collaboration initiatives. The findings of this study demonstrate that the farms' area of the companies from the cashew SC does not have a significant influence on their sustainability indicators. Furthermore, a weak relationship exists between the collaboration initiatives and the indicators associated to the three dimensions of sustainability.

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