QUALIDADE NA CADEIA DE PRODUÇÃO DE LEITE: DIAGNÓSTICO E PROPOSIÇÃO DE MELHORIAS

São Paulo state is one of the major milk producer region in Brazil and in this aspect until last decade the municipality of Tupã was most prominent. This city had a decrease in the milk production of around 20%, from 2002 to 2005. There are many facts which might have restrained that milk production chain as a whole to have prevented it to become more competitive. One of the main restraining factors for its development is the quality of the product offered to the final consumer. Considering that this work aims to make a diagnose of the agents which compound that milk production chain in the region of Tupã, SP, aiming to observe whether there are management tools being used for quality management and describe what they are, and identify possible lacks and propose solutions. The method selected for the empirical part is the case study which was made viable by means of interviews with the agent’s participants and researcher observations. This study indicates that the agents in this production chain have different interests. The milk producers are not aware of quality management tools whilst supermarkets are not committed to contribute for building and preserving the quality of milk products. Finally, a model to improve the coordination of the agents in this production chain in order to improve the quality of the product was proposed