CHARACTERISTICS OF VALUE BASED FOOD CHAIN IN ORGANIC SECTOR(case studies from Slovenia)

In the literature the value based food chains express two main characteristics: business relationships among strategic partners interacting in the supply chain are based on a written set of values and food products are differentiated from similar food products based on product attributes such as food quality, safety, and/or functionality along with environmental and social attributes (Stevenson, 2009). To verify the first part of the definition the analysis of two organic food chains where carried out. For the analysis of business relationships and food quality communication in the food chain two different methodological approaches were used. For collecting the input data a semi-structured interviews with various stakeholders were performed. The results of analyzed case studies are showing, that the characteristics of value based food chains could be broader and more complex if considering some additional perspectives.