The gateway from grape growers to wine cooperatives

Abstract

ABSTRACT Member businesses focus on the production of grapes and must, whereas the cooperative entity focuses on wine-making and the marketing of the products. Member businesses can choose between two options. They can either deliver all their grapes to the cooperative (full delivery) or decide to spread their risk by supplying their grapes partially to various buyers besides the cooperative (partial delivery). Numerous wine cooperatives exclude partial delivery by a strict and unexceptional full delivery obligation. However, in practice, many cooperative members apply the partial delivery procedure. Suppose a full delivery obligation is in place; in that case, the cooperative members use various measures such as the legal division or splitting of the member companies to circumvent the full delivery obligation in practice. Even though partial delivery is actively pursued, the procedure is currently not investigated and researched. This paper aims to present the concept of partial delivery and to discuss challenges and opportunities for wine cooperatives if partial delivery is implemented officially.