How Is the Value Chain Formed in Spain?
The difference between these two channels is the key players. Auctions dominate traditional channels' commercial activities, while cooperatives dominate modern channels.
Input Suppliers
As most cucumber producers are cultivating crops in the greenhouse, the input supplier for greenhouses plays a more significant role in the chain.
Apart from supplying the farms with bare farming essentials, this channel also includes research facilities, greenhouse technologies (ex: hydroponics), banks providing loans, and even greenhouse waste recycling (considering the amount of plastic waste used in the greenhouse).
Greenhouse Farms
Most farms are small-scale, and families run businesses less than 2 ha. Many farm owners operate and maintain their farms or employ cheap labor by hiring migrant workers.
Cooperatives
Cooperatives are formed by small-mid scale farms to effectively market their combined harvests and a better buyer leverage. They also carry out other critical exporting functions such as warehousing, processing, and marketing. They can be further classified into 1st tier and 2nd tier cooperatives. 1st tier cooperatives are formed by farmers themselves, while other cooperatives form 2nd tier cooperatives. 1st tier cooperatives are concentrated mainly on domestic and, to a lesser degree, export but limited to a few buyers, mostly retail program deals. 2nd tier cooperatives have a more comprehensive range of domestic and overseas buyers and networks.
Auctions
Auctions purchase goods from farms and sell them in a descending price auction where the sellers mark the starting and minimum prices.
Wholesalers/ Exporters
Functions are similar to any other wholesaler/exporter in any value chain where they sell the goods domestically or overseas. The sources of the goods are also diverse ranging from directly sourced from farmers purchased from auctions or even cooperatives.