Mercados vinícolas físicos e digitais da agricultura familiar: um estudo na Serra Gaúcha

Abstract

This work is developed based on the understanding that markets are social constructions, especially in the context of products that are loaded with historicity, tradition and that undergo sociotechnical innovations throughout their history. Based on the perspective of economic sociology, in which economic factors, especially markets, are not abstract to the social actors that organize themselves in the places and regions, the central theme of this thesis was the family wine markets of Serra Gaúcha. The questions posed were: what types of physical and digital markets exist from the family wine-growing agriculture of the Serra do Nordeste region of Rio Grande do Sul, better known as Serra Gaúcha? What are the roles of family farming organizations in the social construction of the possible markets found? What dynamics and innovations exist in the functioning of these markets? To this end, the objective was to analyze the processes of social construction of the physical and digital markets of winemaking developed by family farming and its organizations in the Serra do Nordeste region of Rio Grande do Sul (Serra Gaúcha). To achieve its objective and to answer the research questions, the research started with a non-probabilistic sampling called Snowball sampling in which the parties were identified from qualified informants and the results were structured in the in-depth case studies of the parties until the sociological saturation found in the field research. Thus, the research directly covered 12 families in 10 undivided family wineries and, indirectly, 780 families that hold the social construction of their markets linked to two family-based wine cooperatives. The research showed that 92% of the family wineries in Serra Gaúcha adopt a diversification of their marketing channels and, when analyzing the main channels, their markets are structured as being 75% physical and 25% digital. The physical markets have typological characteristics such as being conventional (37.50%), local and territorial (20.83%), as well as proximity (16.67%). Digital markets have shown themselves to be a continuum of physical markets without significant innovations from this format and redefining values of proximity markets (25.00%) even at considerable geographic distances. Based on the analysis of physical markets, the research detected a clear hybridism between conventional markets and markets of social proximity and territoriality of family wineries. A correlation was observed between the type of production, product positioning and the markets in which these wines are inserted. Wineries that value attributes hitherto forgotten, such as clean production, table grapes and wines that "tell stories of the settlers", tend to fit into proximity and territorial markets. On the other hand, wineries that seek a greater focus on fine wines, that position themselves in competition with imported wines on Brazilian shelves and seek to meet specialized standards tend to adopt the format required by conv entional markets. The empirical evidence from digital markets suggests that they do not represent a new category of markets for family farming. Ultimately, digitalization permeates all markets through new digital channels created by social actors, with greater intensity in markets of social proximity, as observed in family wineries in Serra Gaúcha. Furthermore, it was possible to observe that, in these markets, digitalization not only increases social proximity, even mediated by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), but also strengthens the construction of territorial relations beyond geographic proximity, presenting digital markets as extensions of physical proximity markets. The analyses of the roles of social organizations, institutions and cooperatives that relate to the construction of family wine markets in Serra Gaúcha demonstrated a myriad of entities, however, with distinct focuses and actions not aligned in this perspective. Therefore, it is undeniable that the organizational environment of family wineries, about the construction of their markets, presents major deficiencies. Although it cannot be denied that there are actions, albeit fragmented and dissonant, on the part of each of the entities listed in the field research.