Producers’ Organizations at the Heart of Evaluating the Quality of Fruit. Diverse Strategies in the Rhône-Alpes

The paper explains how peach quality is ensured from the orchard to the first stage of marketing. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the study analyses several producers’ organisations (PO) marketing peaches in the Rhone-Alpes region and their relationships with both suppliers and customers. An analytic framework is suggested and three types of POs are identified depending on their degree of co-ordination with suppliers and the extent to which they value a diversity of quality levels in production. The marketing strategy of POs towards distributors appears to be a key factor in explaining their functioning, at both the marketing and supplying levels.