1 Segmented Markets, Cooperative Behaviours: Innovation in the Production of the Brazilian Coffee

The present article aims to discuss some the organizational and institutional aspects that have became the basis for the development of coffee as a non-commodity product in Brazil. It is expected that due to new patterns of coffee consumption, a new strategy permits the competitive reinsertion of Brazilian coffee into the international markets. The suggested methods, interviews to the driving stakeholders and observation of the respective networking systems, are applied in the different stages of the supply chain in order to demonstrate that the production conditions are imposing specific strategic interrelationships between the roasting and the grinding industry and among the several intervenient actors. It is observed that most of such processes take place within a new context of competition where innovation, segmentation and product differentiation are more important factors for the international market than cost and price reductions, thus thereby demanding a serious redefinition the companies ’ strategy dynamics. The results detect the application of the concept of flexible specialization as a fundamental input. They corroborate some of the analytical elements which are essentia