LOGISTICS COSTS MANAGEMENT: A STUDY OF PRACTICES ADOPTED BY AGRIBUSINESS COOPERATIVE OF SANTA CATARINA STATE

Abstract

This article aims to investigate the logistics cost management practices adopted by an agribusiness cooperative located in Santa Catarina state, analyzing them in relation to what is established in the literature. This is a descriptive, exploratory and qualitative research. This is a single case study, whose data was collected in the 2^nd half of 2011, through documentary research, observation and semi-structured interviews with cooperative managers. The main results show that the logistics costs management is seen as an important activity in the cooperative strategy because influences directly the level of customer satisfaction and the organizations outcome. The cooperative has developed its own model of logistics costs management and doeDs not consider some types of costs mentioned in the literature, such as cost of production planning and control, costs of information technology, inventory holding costs, costs of lots and level of services offered. Also, there is also little use of management practices of logistics costs, despite the importance highlighted by managers. There are no signs to significant change in this situation in the short term.