THE INNOVATIONS IN THE DAIRY SECTOR: THE CASE OF COOPERATIVE FRENCH GROUP 3A

Abstract

The world agribusiness industry is known for its low levels of investment in Research & Development. Incremental technological advances are the tradition. Specifically at the dairy sector, one of the great motivators of innovations is the search for a bigger quality and durability in the products. However, in recent years there is a trend to searching functional and sustainable products. In this sense, the objective of this paper is to identify and evaluate the innovations of a French cooperative in the dairy sector, from 1990 to 2005. For that, a case study was made at the Cooperative Group 3A, which is an important cooperative on France. We have identified some induced innovations by suppliers, mainly innovations in product and process. However, we have also identified a significant number of innovations in management, mainly as a result of the minor investment demanded in technology. We have identified that the search for higher quality levels was the main reason for the innovations implementation. Nevertheless, we have confirmed the trend of producing products with functional qualities and sustainable appeal.