The ¿Cereja da Cova da Beira (IGP)¿ supply chain

“Cereja da Cova da Beira” is the legal term used to denominate sweet cherries produced in the Cova da Beira region (IGP) in the central eastern interior of Portugal, since 1996. To characterize the Cova da Beira sweet cherries flows from production to consumption (supply chain) and identify new requirements of consumption and constraints to marketing, a study based on the information from questionnaires to producers and their organizations, suppliers, packaging and marketing units, organized retail and consumers, was conducted in 2010 and 2012. The results found that the Cova da Beira sweet cherry industry runs two large trade flows: traditional marketing channel, composed of micro and small producers, and organized marketing channel, consisting of medium and large producers, producer organizations (PO) and private packaging and marketing units (PMU). The low adherence of micro, small and medium producers to PO and private PMU increased supply dispersion, while demand is concentrated in wholesale markets and hypermarkets/supermarkets. Thus, competition inside the disperse supply structure is the main factor preventing higher prices and higher export volumes, by not providing adequate logistics and dimension. The organization and concentration of production, the certification of the product and the information/marketing at the consumer's level are critical to further development of the “Cereja da Cova da Beira (IGP)”.