VALUETEAM Project

Project summary

The main objective of this research project is to explore ways of improving the value in the dates supply chains in three Southern Mediterranean countries (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia called “South”) and one Northern country (France, called “North”). The overall objective of the project is to analyze the constraints and opportunities associated with the national and international development of the Dates sector in the southern countries targeted by the project, through the implementation of quality marks. Indeed, the project aims to identify and evaluate, through an analysis of the interactions between the public and private strategies and modes of professional organizations, the effectiveness of value creation dynamics for a local Mediterranean products: dates. To reach this goal, the project starts from the idea that the behavior of local value chains stakeholders are strategic responses to government actions. We will analyze these complex interactions, identifying their effects on the formation of prices in domestic markets and on the access to domestic and international markets. The project will consist of three main axes: ii) Market opportunities and supply chain organization for local agri-food products in domestic markets, ii) International food Supplychains: structure, strategies and value sharing, and iii) Consumer perceptions, expectations and attitudes towards mark signs of the local product studied. ValueTeam will address the issues raised above through new methodological approaches, including value chain approach with focus on quantitative analysis, models of industrial organization and models of operational research, applied on data collected from field surveys. The mechanisms of coordination and management of professional organizations will be analyzed as well as to assess their capacity to promote the emergence of dynamic valuable supply of local products along with fair distribution of value throughout the selected supply chains in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.

Keywords:

Mediterranean local products, Competitive and sustainable value chains, Domestic and international markets, Professional organization, Dates sector