Análise da capacidade de acompanhamento das tendências de comercialização de sucos de uva: um estudo aplicado às cooperativas da Serra Gaúcha

Abstract

Cultivation of grape in the south of the country begun with the arrival of Italian immigrants, who brought with them fruit seedlings to grow in the region. These immigrant families had the habit of consuming wine in their meals and, to meet this consumption, they produced wines and its derivatives in the canteens of their own houses. From this production, companies and agricultural cooperatives subsequently emerged, formed by the union of rural producers aiming to achieve better conditions to compete with wine and derivatives producing companies. Currently, Serra Gaúcha region is the largest producer of wines and grape products in Brazil and, over the years, changes have been observed in the production process and consumption of this kind of product. Among these changes, we can mention the increase in the consumption of grape juices and the development of the organic products market. In this context, this work aimed to analyze the ability to follow the trends in the commercialization of grape juice by the cooperatives of Serra Gaúcha region, aiming to direct their productive strategies. This assignment is justified by verifying if the production by the Serra Gaúcha Cooperatives in terms of product types and produced quantities is aligned with the existing demand in the State. For this purpose, the secondary data on the commercialization of grape juices obtained from wine sector entities and the production data of the wine cooperatives of Serra Gaúcha region were comparatively analyzed. The obtained results indicated that Serra Gaúcha Cooperatives are aligned with the consumer market because with the analysis of the liters production of the cooperatives of grape-derived juices versus the liters marketed in the State was evidenced that there is the capacity to follow the trend of commercialization of grape juices in the State of Rio Grande do Sul. It was observed through the analyzed data that the commercialization of grape juices has been growing in the State of Rio Grande do Sul and the Cooperatives of Serra Gaúcha are following this demand growing their product offer. The production of grape-derived juices is at higher levels than the consumption in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, thus underlining that the cooperatives of Serra Gaúcha are managing to meet the demand of the State and offer their products outside Rio Grande do Sul. [resumo fornecido pelo autor]