Assessing the level of collaboration in the Egyptian organic and fair trade cotton chain

Abstract

There is rising interest in collaboration among supply chain partners in food and fibre supply chain management studies. In organic and fair-trade chains, collaboration is rooted in both principles and current practices. A tool for assessing collaboration in the food and fibre sector has not been developed to date. To fill this gap a collaboration index has been adapted to the Egyptian organic and fair trade cotton supply chain. A factor analysis has been performed to this end. Two factors emerged within each of the three constructs defining the collaboration index: information sharing (price information and logistics), decision synchronization (exception management and general management) incentive alignment (risk sharing and technical support). The study contributes to defining a method for designing specific collaboration indexes in different food and fibre chains. The index provided relevant context-related information supporting the collaboration strategies in the Egyptian organic cotton chain.