Environmental and innovative

competitive strategies in agroindustry

companies of the poultry system in
Paraná

Márcia R. Gabardo Câmara1 and Fernando A. P. Gimenez2

1
mgabardo@onda.com.br at Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Departamento de Economia, 86051-970 Londrina Pr,
Brazil
2
fapgimenez@uem.br at Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Departamento de Administração, 87020-900 Maringá Pr,
Brazil

The objective of the work was to accomplish a study of conduct and managerial acting and to
identify competitive strategies in innovative companies of the chicken agribusinness in Paraná. The
poultry industry, as an industrial process, appeared in the end of the sixties and it started to
constitute the principal segment of the meat processing industry, in function of the installation of
great oligopoly and integrated companies in the late seventies. The import of the process technology
allowed for vertical integration. In 1990, Paraná poultry system was composed by 14 companies. At
the present time more than 30 companies are operating. Among the companies initially contacted to
participate in the experiment, there was the return of four questionnaires. The pattern of similar
conduct for the companies in the chicken agribusiness system indicates that, in the present stage,
growing integration still implicates scale gains, providing growing national and international
competitiveness. But the strategy seems to have reached a saturation degree because the prices have
been presenting a declining trend.

1 Competitiveness and Agribusiness
Haguenauer (1986) defines industrial complex as a group
of industries whose dynamics is governed by common
factors, constituting segments of a same productive chain
or of interdependent chains, that converge to the same
market. In agribusiness an industrial complex involves
the production of food, fibers and biomass. It is
characterized as the sum of all the production and
distribution operations of agricultural supplies, including
from production, processing and storage in the
agricultural units to processing and distribution of the
final product. The agribusiness practices and the forms of
managerial conduct have been altering in function of the
crisis of traditional mechanisms of agricultural politics,
of markets deregulation and of the formation of
economical blocks.
Competitiveness is conquered, at first, at the level of
the individual company and later at the sector level. At
the microeconomic level, the company takes strategic
decisions seeking to reach profitability goals, growth of
the firm and shares of national and international markets.
These decisions will affect industry level competitiveness
According to JANK (1996: 14-15) Competitiveness is
influenced by available technology, efficiency of its use,
domestic prices, production inputs, exchange rates and
parity, distance of export markets, the port and transport
costs, structure of incentives and subsidies, tariff and
non-tariff barriers, quality and image of the product and
consumers' taste. Industrial competitiveness is related to
competition, efficiency, productivity and technological
maturity.
The roots of the studies of competitiveness are in the
approach of relative advantages. The relative prices of the
production factors are influenced by the differences in the
endowments of factors and together with available
technology, scale savings, consumption patterns and
market structure they affect the international flows of
goods. The approach of competitiveness includes the
analysis of the conduct - price, quality, supply regularity
and innovation -, of the competition patterns happening
simultaneously in the same industry sector - and of the
firm performance in an united way.
At the level of the firm, the generic strategies for
obtaining competitive advantages are: leadership in costs
(use of scale savings, curves of experience, control of
fixed costs) and leadership in differentiation (quality
noticed by the consumers, use of marks, barriers to the
entrance in general) (Porter, 1980) The competitive
advantages conquered at the level of the firm affect the
competitive forces that determine the structural
attractiveness in the long period of a sector, as the
intensity of the capitalist rivalry, the threat of new
comers, the substitutes' threats, the negotiation power
with buyers and the negotiation power with the suppliers.
Most of the case studies do not allow for generalizations,
but they reinforce the idea that permanent or absolute
competitive vantage does not exist.
According to JANK (1996, p.23), there are three basic
determinants of the structure and organization of the
agribusiness systems: "a) internal factors to the company
(strategies, capacities and human resources); b) structural
factors (revenues, productivity, quality, relationships
among the segments) and c) systemic factors
(macroeconomic, political, institutional, regulatory, of
infrastructure and international)". To this author, the
competitiveness of the different agri-food chains depends
basically on the maintenance of structural advantages and
of internal competencies for each company.
In the institutional focus, the issue of the
competitiveness of the agribusiness is innovative because
organizations and institutions can contribute in the
generation and maintenance of the competitive
advantages. The productive efficiency is correlated to the
managerial capacity in reducing the transaction costs and
to make appropriate contracts. The organization should
be capable to coordinate the countless agents' specialized
work so that one information flows in a fast and efficient
way for the constituent segments and allows for the
solution of characteristic distributive problems of the
economical relationships. (JANK,1996)
2. Poultry agro-industrial complex
The poultry industry, as an industrial process, appeared
in the end of the sixties and it started to constitute the
principal segment of the meat processing industry, in
function of the installation of great oligopoly and
integrated companies in the late seventies. The import of
the process technology allowed for vertical integration,
the production of complementary activities to slaughter
and the contractual scheme of birds creation close to the
poultry producers. Such initiatives with the increase of
the price of the bovine meat - Brazilian production of
meat of birds using imported technology , both for the
genetics and to the productive process - allowed the
displacement of the bovine meat.
Several factors contributed so that the consumption of
chicken meat reached 40% of the total consumption of
meats in Brazil. The growth of supply and the diffusion
of the consumption were fruits of the amplification of the
scale, of the incorporation of technological innovations in
the productive chain, of the reduction in costs and prices,
of the creation of varieties of products with greater
diffusion potential and of the amplification of the urban
markets. (Rizzi, 1999)
The Brazilian industry of chicken meat grew and there
was the integration in the inter-regional division of the
work in several areas - insertion of the South region and
of São Paulo, although other states have increased the
participation in the industry but with smaller plants,
focused in regional markets. In Paraná, companies
created in the seventies, acted almost exclusively in the
chicken meat segment.
The expansion of soybeans culture of and of the
installation of the oleaginous industry facilitated the
concentrated implantation of the poultry industry in the
South region and São Paulo. The states of the south are
the main producers of corn, responding for approximately
50% of the national production, being Paraná the largest
producer. For Rizzi(1999) there were favorable
conditions that in conjunction with public policies of
incentives to the implantation of industries, induced the
combination of several complementary activities of the
productive chain of the meats complex. The poultry
industry grew linked to the expansion of the soy cultures
and corn, allowing the transformation of vegetable
protein in animal protein.
The process of vertical integration of the production of
soy bran and of mixtures is adopted in the leader
companies. The growth of the poultry industry in the
South region was fruit of the association of the regional
characteristics where the great integrated companies
settled: the land structure based mainly on small
agricultural establishments allowed for the integration of
the poultry producers. Such fact attracted investments in
the area of birds slaughtering, and the great companies
started to integrate vertically in almost all the linked
activities to slaughter. The leader companies in the
industry produce from the matrix and one day chicks for
cut, to mixtures, the slaughtering and the distribution of
the products, besides the technical assistance to those
integrated.
In the eighties there were qualitative changes in the
productive process of the poultry industry: the
acceleration of incorporation of technologies at the level
of the slaughtering of birds, with larger automation
degrees and the introduction of new types of machines
and equipment, linked to the subsequent stages to the
slaughtering, in other words, the processing of cut out
products and industrialized, associated to the innovation
of products. The development of new products in the
leader companies' strategies aimed at attending to the
segmented market:
“the slaughtered chicken sold as a whole or the
carcass without feet, without head, etc.; the chicken cut
out with bone and boned; industrialized and emulsified
products (sausages); industrialized and restructured
products (hamburger, nuggets, meatballs, sausages); and
the battered products, pre-cooked and frozen parts (thighs
and chests). The segmentation of the market of chicken
meat allows for distinguishing different forms of
competition in the industry in each product line – related
to technology, prices and differentiation of products etc. -,
and to observe the tendencies of the markets, the
strategies of the companies and the correspondent
consolidation of leadership and the changes also extend
to the industrial processing, with larger elaboration of
cuts and automation in several stages of the process.
(Rizzi,1999,p.7)
Significant barriers to entrance do not exist in respect
of process technologies. The available technology in the
market allows the installation of firms with differentiated
plants, whose size depends on the dimension of the
market, of the financial capacity and of the knowledge of
the activity.
In historical terms, the technological evolution of the
poultry culture in the decades of 50/60 was of genetic
nature, favoring the development of crossings and
appearances of species of hybrid birds. Between 1960/70,
Table 1 - Position of the Companies in Poultry System Complex
the technological evolution was of sanitary order and
there were hygiene practices dissemination and the
development of vaccines and prophylaxis techniques. In
the decade of 70, the introduction of linear programming
allows technological progresses in the area of animal
nutrition. In the decade of 80, the progresses happened in
the techniques of poultry handling, through facilities and
equipment - developed in mechanical and engineering. In
the decade of 90, the transformations were from
environmental nature to the level of the great producing
markets, involving environmental control and climate
adaptation of the birds. Starting from 2000, the
transformations will happen in the area of marketing
administration, involving growing differentiation and
quality of the product (Schorr apud Coelho & Borges,
1999). There is no technological discontinuity, so the
barriers to the entrance are small, but the value
immobilized in investments is very high (Rizzi, 1999)
The introduction of the chicken in parts, of noble cuts
and the expansion of industrialized products was
important in the technological restructuring of the great
Brazilian companies, but the internal consumption is
small. The Brazilian consumer prefers the whole chicken.
The cuts of more sophisticated and industrialized
chickens are produced by great companies, focused in the
export market because the volume consumed internally is
small, although presenting a growing tendency.
In the production of noble products there is the
prevalence of the great companies and the barriers to
entrance grow, in function of the expenses in research of
new products, in the popularization of the brands and in
the high investment for facilities and equipment. There
are demands such as optimization of quality of the
carcasses of the chickens to obtain processed food with
quality, heavier and older birds that increase the demand
of investments in relation to environment, nutrition,
handling and facilities and high investments inside of the
gate or at birds production level. The releases of new
industrialized products and of new packages are part of
the strategy of the leaders' differentiation, that transform
the poultry, bovine and pork meats. According to Schorr
(apud Coelho & Borges, 1999), in agreement with the
table 1, the companies can occupy different positions in
the agribusiness poultry system.
The productive transformations in the supply side and
the growth of the demand for meat in the last thirty years,
stimulated the production of chickens and eggs, whose
rhythm overcame the rate of the other sectors. Figure 1
presents the evolution of the consumption of chicken
meat in several countries and it allows for the
verification of its dissemination degree.
 LEADERS EMERGENTS SMALL FIRMS
MARKET SHARE More than 7% 1 to 7% Less than 1%
PERFORMANCE National/International National/Regional Regional/Local
COMPETITIVE POSITION Normal High Niches
PRODUCTS Own brand/Commodities Own brand/Commodities Commodities
TURNOVER High Medium Low
PROFIT High Medium Low
PRICE CONTROL High Low None
FOCUS Industrialization Slaughter/Distribution Production/Slaughter
STRATEGIES Differentiation Cost reduction /Volume Cost
TECHNOLOGY Sophisticated High High /Medium
R&D INVESTMENT High Medium None
BARRIERS TO ENTRANCE High Medium Low
VERTICAL INTEGRATION Falling High High
MARKETING High Low None
TENDENCY Incorporation/Growth Merger/Growth Maintenance
Source:Schorr(apud Coelho&Borges,1999,p.23).

12000

10000

1994
8000 1995

1996

1000 ton 6000 1997

1998

4000

2000

0
USA China Brazil Mexico Japan England Spain Russia
Country

Source: Coelho & Borges (1999)

Figure 1. Chicken meat consumption – 1994/98

The growth of the number of matrices happened in
an intense way, as displayed in figure 2. Space
distribution did not happen in a concentrated way
throughout the country, as displayed in figure 3. The
largest producers are: São Paulo, Santa Catarina,
Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul and Minas Gerais. The
only state that presented continuous growth of the
production of cut chicks in the period 1981/95 was
Paraná. Although data are not shown, lately there has
been an inversion in the growth tendency in function
of the American and European protection pressures and of the exchange valorization till January 1999.

Housing of cut matrices in volume - 1981/ 96- millions of units

25 , 000 0

20 , 000 0

15 , 000 0

10 , 000 0

5, 0 00 0

0, 0 00 0

81 82 86 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96
year

Source: ABEF (1996)

Figure 2: Housing of cut matrices

The international competitiveness of the companies was the fall in production costs. A comparative analysis
can be inferred starting from the expansion of internal of the table 2 reveals that the Brazilian producers had
production and of sales for the external market. Figure 4 comparative advantages of costs in face of competitors.
shows internal disponibility and growth in exportation up
to 1998.
One of the responsible factors for the transformation

Great producers of chicks for cut

Regional Production Brazil (%) 1981/95

Others
1995
Ceará
1991
Pernambuco
1986
Minas Gerais
1981
Rio Garnde do Sul

Paraná

Santa Catarina

São Paulo

0,0 5,0 10,0 15,0 20,0 25,0 30,0

Source: ABEF (1996)

Figure 3. Great producers of chicks for cut

Table 2 - Cost of Poultry Production in Selected Exporters Countries

Cost - in cents of American dollar Brazil China France United States

for weight kg live 1993 1994 1993 1994
Price of the chick 9,4 10,0 14,3 8,3*
Price of the mixtures 35,9* 42,9 57,1 36,8
Payment of the producer 5,3* 5,8 19,2 8
Veterinarian and medicines 0,1* 2,0 1,3 1,1
Price in the farm 50,7* 60,7 91,9 57,2
Alive transport 1,5 1,0* 1,8 2,8
Alive price in the slaughterhouse 52,2* 61,7 93,6 58,8
Source: SUCESSO na Avicultura (1998, p.12)

Chicken export and Internal disponibility - 1981/98

4500,0

4000,0
Export
3500,0

3000,0
Internal
Disponibility
2500,0

2000,0

1500,0

1000,0

500,0

0,0
81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98

A no

Source: Coelho&Borges(1999), ABEF (1996)

Figure 4. Chicken export and Internal disponibility - 1981/98

managerial and institutional innovations in the poultry

The increase of the production and of the production and of the intense existent competition in
consumption of chickens has been possible thanks to the sector. There is great proximity in the costs of the
the fall in the costs of derived production, of principal countries exporters production, whose
incorporations of technical, handling genetics and evolution of the exports is presented in figure 5.
 700

600
1994
500 1995
400 1996
Ton

300
1997
1998
200

100

0
audi Arabia J apan HongKong Argentine Arabian Singapure Kwait Spain Russia German Total
Emirades

Country

Source: Coelho&Borges(1999)

Figure 5. Export of Chicken

3. Poultry System in Paraná: A Brief the chicken (whole and pieces) . Intermediate phases
Exploratory Study can be manual, semiautomatic and automated; the
companies present several automation degrees in the
intermediate stages. One of the companies just presents
In 1990, Paraná poultry system was composed by 14
90% of the automated productive process. There is
companies. At the present time more than 30
heterogeneity of technologies that allows for the
companies are operating. Among the companies
coexistence of different types of companies in the
initially contacted to participate in the experiment,
market and all the farms accomplished significant
there was the return of four questionnaires, but some
investments in the last four years in expansion of the
questions were not answered, with the allegation that
capacity and industrial automation.
there would be the popularization of confidential data.
The degree of integration of the farms is also
The exploratory study discusses the information of four
heterogeneous inside Paraná, according to the table 3.
companies of medium load: two of the north of the
The companies of the North present an integration
state and two companies of the west. The four
pattern more homogenized. Only the genetic material
companies had annual turnovers between R$10 million
is imported and the companies try to use mixed
and R$100 million. Due to sector particularities, the
lineages; the most used are those leaders in the world
farms use an average of 400 direct employees and 1200
market, such as, Ross, Cobb, ISA, Hubbard and
workers direct and indirectly, through integrated
Embrapa. In performance terms, only one of the farms
producers. The medium capacity of the
supplied the information, the others they alleged
slaughterhouses is superior to 8000 chicken/hour.
confidentiality. The performance parameters were:
The main productive stages are: hanging, bleeding,
beginning and final of the reproduction age in weeks
defeathering, finishing, opening of the chicken,
of the females, eggs /female, incubated eggs (% of
evisceration table, cleaning, spill-chiller and packing.
use), cracking and chicks by female are coherent with
The first stages are manual, as well as the packing of
parameters of high international competitiveness.
Table 3 - Degree of Integration in the Aviculture of the North of Paraná - 2000

Degree of Integration yes(Y) no(N) Acquired Export

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
GENETIC MATERIAL N N N Y 1,2,3 Y Y N N
AVIARIES FOR MATRICES Y Y N Y
INCUBATORS Y Y N Y
MIXTURES Y Y Y Y
FEEDING OF CHICKS Y Y N Y 60% acquired out
SLAUGHTERHOUSE Y Y Y Y
CUTS AND INDUSTRIALIZATION Y Y Y Y
DISTRIBUTION Y Y N Y
MARKET N Y N Y
minimization, associated with strategies of differentiation
The mix of marketed products of the companies of the product.
involves the whole chicken - commodity of low final Although the companies present satisfactory
price - and cut out chicken. Company 1 presents better performance, there is constant concern with the
technological and competitive indicators and maintenance of those indexes. The concern is expressed
industrializes sausage and rejections; company 2 only in the investments in the technological capability
markets cut out; company 3 markets 90% of the chicken imported from of suppliers, that is, out of the company.
cut out at regional and national market; and company 4 The sources of technological changes in product, process
presents the largest automation degree and its market mix and raw material are the following ones: Company 1 - it
is composed of 34% of whole chicken and 60% cut out. imports matrices of the exterior, it accomplishes R&D in
The companies worry a lot out about the “out of the gate” the company, it looks for Brazilian market customers'
phase, because most of the problems inside of the gate are suggestions; Company 2 - it imports matrices of the
already under control. exterior, it looks for Brazilian market customers'
Although in other areas of the country the companies suggestions and of the international market, institutes of
are making alliances, growth strategies such as sale of researches and universities in Brazil, research and
bondss, associations, coalitions, were not implemented in development in the company; Company 3, does not
the companies of the sample. Table 4 presents the most look for innovations, but it imports matrices of the
common strategies. Given the high competition through exterior.
price in the sector, the companies operate so much at the
internal market, as in the external with strategies of cost

Table 4. Company’ Strategy for Growth - 2000

Strategy for Growth (Y) (N) Which is the cause of the strategy?
1 2 3 1 2 3
Sale of part of the capital of the N N N (1) profit losses;
company
Acquisition of another company N N N (2) capital needed
Sale of part of the company N N N (3) little integrated;
Association N N N (4) diversification needed;
Cost minimization/ price war Y Y(2) Y
Diversification Y Y(4) Y
Export Y Y(4) Y
Marketing Y N N
R&D Y Y N
Product quality Y Y Y

Table 5. Factors that influence performance and that need to be improved

Company 1 2 3 4
Control of Diseases 4 3 4 (1) Not important
Technology 4 4 (2)Regular
Degree of automation 4 3 4 (3) Important
Desensitization, bleeding, adaptation to market patterns 4 3 3 (4) Very important
Processing of residues 4 3 3
Scald and plucking control 4 2
Spill-chiller – freezing tunnels 4 4 3
System of classifying 4 3 3
System of weighting 4 3
Introduction of new types of packers 2 3 2
Commercialization of cuts 3 4 3
New products 3 4
The principal technological progresses in the last four
years were the following:
The principal obstacles to technological progress in Company 1: a) chicken and temperate cuts, b) frozen
the sector in order of importance are: difficult access to chickens in continuous tunnel, c) chicken sausages and d)
financial institutes, instability of the poultry market, standardization of weights.
inadequacy of fiscal and financial incentives, own Company 2: a) chicken and temperate cuts, b) frozen
financial capacity, access difficulties to technological chickens in continuous tunnel, c) chicken sausages, d)
information, limited dimension of the market and lack of raw material sanitary guarante and e) reduction of the
appropriate human resources. manual contact, elevation of the semi-automation degree
The companies have been investing in administration and automation of production.
techniques, supervision and training to improve Company 3 alleges that did not accomplish significant
productivity and to reduce costs. Company 1 implanted technological progresses.
internal kanban, just in time, statistical control of Company 4 automated all the productive phases with
production, while participative management and CCQs exception of hanging and packing and is selling chicken
are being implemented . Company 2 did not adopt any parts.
new technique and company 3 implanted CCQs. All the
techniques reached ojectives because they reduced costs
and improved the quality of the product.
 The main conditioning factors of the changes in
process, product and raw materials were in order of
importance: search of costs reduction, search for external
markets - Europe, USA, China, Mercosul, Brazilian
market customers' solicitation and imposition of
suppliers. The production and the exports grew
significantly among 1994/98 and they floated in an
unstable way between jan/1999 and abril/2000, in
function of the changes in the internal and external price
of the chicken, disarticulating the actions of the sector.
The main inductors to exports are: search for more
lucrative opportunities, search of scale savings, search of
diversification of markets, search for technological
updating and to avoid the internal control of prices. The
main barriers are the sanitary impositions. The planned
investments by mid April/2000 were above US$750mil in
the companies 1, 2 and 3.
The characteristics of the marketed product are similar
in the researched companies, as well as the practiced
price. The firms fix prices according to competitors’
prices and apply a markup that covers costs, but
customers’ pressures can be successful, fomenting war
prices, as verified April/2000. The companies are trying
to articulate as a group, but high competition in the
sector has impeded collusive or cartel practices.
To reduce the costs in the area of supplies and of the
production inside of the gate of the farms a number of
issues are very important. For instance, cost of sanitary
control, inadequate components, access and development
of new products, lack of supply reliability, low
reproductivity and high mortality rates, cost of raw
materials and mixtures, cost of vaccines and antibiotics,
cost of packings, access and development of new
products.
Companies 1, 2 and 3 are accomplishing investments
in activities and policies of environmental control,
according to information portrayed in table 6. Company 4
does not present an environmental policy and company 2
did not cost the effects. They involve initial investments
with measurement, gauging and pollution control that
alter the cost of the productive process significantly, in
spite of guaranteeing a competitive advantage in the
international market. The companies are in search of the
environmental certification for entering and staying at
the European market in the next years.

Table 6 - Synthesis of the Effects of Environmental Norms, in Terms of Cost

FUNCTION/ITEM AFECTED COSTS Realized

Low Medium High Yes No
Investment on pollution measurement 1, 3 1, 3
Increase of costs with pollution measurement 1,3 1, 3
Investment in the control of pollution 1, 3 1, 3
Increase of costs with control 1, 3 1, 3
Alteration of the productive process 1, 3 1, 3
Increase in the cost due to new process 1, 3 1, 3
Effects on the section of R&D 1, 3 1, 3
Personnel's increase (for the environmental area) 1, 3 1, 3
Organizational Routines (bureaucracy) 1, 3 1, 3
Cost of the environmental audits 1, 3 1, 3
Personnel's qualification and training 1, 3 1, 3
Implantation of the norm: consultants 1, 3 1, 3
Implantation of the norm: cost of the certification 1, 3 1, 3
product in the European market. 80% of the outstanding
According to table 7, companies 1, 2 and 3 are items were already accomplished.
accomplishing efforts for the environmental qualification,
one of the essential factors for the placement of the
 Table 7 - Effort for obtaining of environmental conformity

ELEMENTS OF EFFORT TO OBTAIN

ENVIRONMENTAL NORM CONFORMITY
LOW MEDIUM HIGH
Formalizing environmental policy, openly declared, that includes the 3 1,2
compromising with continuous improvement.
Definition and documentation of responsibilities and the personnel's 3 1,2
authorities involved in activities with effect real or potential on the
atmosphere
Supply of the qualification needs and the personnel's training involved in 3,2 1
activities with effect real or potential on the atmosphere
Establishment of procedures for identification, exam and evaluation of 3 1,2
direct and indirect environmental effects.
Maintenance of updated registration of the legislation, regulations and codes 3 1,2
the one that the company is subject.
Estabelecimento de objetivos e metas compatíveis com a política ambiental 3 1,2
da organização.
Program of environmental administration, gone back to the reach of the 3 2 1
objectives and goals defined.
Elaboration of operation manuals, also documenting functions - key and 3 2 1
responsibilities, embracing normal operation and emergence situations
Control of the documents demanded by the norm, including file, permanent 3 1,2
updating, organization, readiness and ready location
Operational Control : definition of the functions, activities and important 3 1,2
processes. Planning of those activities to assure that are accomplished under
controlled conditions and you subject to documented procedures and
instructions.
Maintenance of a system of registrations seeking to demonstrate the 3 1,2
conformity with the requirements of SGA and the extension of the reach of
goals and objectives.
Definition of the criteria and procedures for environmental audits 3 2 1
Accomplishment of environmental audits 3 2 1
Source: Picture presented by Delazaro Fo. (1997, p.78), data of the field research

Conclusion environmental conduct, the sanity of the product and

Asymmetries were verified in the strategic conducts of
the companies in the chicken agribusiness system in
north and west Paraná research. Successful competitive
and environmental strategies were identified in the
analyzed companies, such as competition in prices (price
war in the sale of whole chickens) and extra-price
(differentiation of the product), fruit of the conquest and
maintenance of technological and financial advantages
derived of the exploration of scope and scale savings. The
pattern of similar conduct for the companies in the
chicken agribusiness system indicates that, in the present
stage, growing integration still implicates scale gains,
providing growing national and international
competitiveness. But the strategy seems to have reached a
saturation degree because the prices have been presenting
a declining trend. It seems that differentiation and
competition through quality, the export of products of
larger aggregated value, the exploration of the
standardization of the several productive stages, by
growing hygiene and automation of the productive
process heterogeneous patterns have been guaranteeing
the survival of several types of competitive. Just one of
the analyzed companies, company 1, is close of the most
advanced stages of the poultry compound, but the four
companies are making an effort to enlarge their
competitiveness and to maintain the market shares, in the
turning of the millennium.
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