ETHICS AS AN INTERNATIONAL VALUE-ADDING STRATEGY OF COLORED COTTON IN BRAZIL

Abstract

The issue of this research is based on the role of ethics in the international development strategies of enterprises. Here, within the context of the Brazilian State of Paraiba, a region long characterized by highly archaic structures of production and social relations. It is in this setting that we are interested in highlighting a recent and very promising experience: the cultivation and the valorization/creation of additional value of, colored cotton. At the same time, it reflects a possible evolution of the value systems of certain local leaders/decision-makers, the coordinated actions of certain stakeholders such as research centers, agricultural and production cooperatives, local associations... and the practice of original strategies of product differentiation and valorization both in the national and international markets. In this context, the purpose of the present study is simply to show that an ethical strategy that combines the dimensions of sustainable development and social responsibility is viable under certain conditions and even when it is not exclusive. In particular, it represents a solution in terms of adding value to the natural products from the Sertão (a semi-arid region in the northeast of Brazil), bearing in mind that this strategy will have to face those of other enterprises established in the same market and that have opted for price policies based on the exploitation of the local labor force.