NETWORKING AGRIFOOD SMEs AND CONSUMER GROUPS IN LOCAL AGRIBUSINESS Antonio P. Volpentesta, Salvatore Ammirato Università della Calabria, volpentesta@deis.unical.it, ammirato@deis.unical.it, ITALY How could a cluster of high quality agrifood SMEs face global competition? How could a local group of consumers purchase trusted quality goods at reduced prices? To address these issues, we present a model of local trade networks that specifies relationships and links between and within consumer groups and agrifood producer clusters, where exchange can take place only if formal relationships between them exist. An application of the model has been trialed in an EU funded project, SADECAL, aimed at creating a collaborative network in the agrifood sector. 1. INTRODUCTION Over recent years, the European agribusiness sector has been facing new challenges due to deregulation and globalisation of the markets, increased customer quality requirements in agrifood products and the development of new technologies. Growing competitive pressures drive agrifood producers to search for new ways of doing business able to guarantee competitive advantages, to improve farm revenue streams and to develop new consumer market niches. Different studies (Volpentesta & Ammirato, 2007; Bowler et al, 1996; Weaver & Fennell, 1997) show that ways to realise agribusinesses’ expectations consist in operating on: • agrifood products, setting them with high “typical and quality” features (i.e. strictly related with local territory); • production/distribution processes, making the long and complex agrifood supply chains shorter; • technological platforms, supporting adequate e-business solutions for SMEs (European Commission, 2007). In this paper, we introduce results of an EU funded project, SADECAL, aimed at creating a collaborative network in the agrifood sector. In particular, we refer to a regional scenario where agribusiness clusters (coalitions of SMEs producing high “typical and quality” agrifood goods) and consumer groups; (individuals clustered into virtual communities of common interests for purchasing) are involved in a trade network (Mathewson & Winter, 1996; Schotanus & Telgen, 2007; Wang & Watts, 2003). For such a network, we propose an organisational framework and an open-source e-business platform aimed to: • support the ‘Relocalisation’ process, i.e. the identification and valorisation of local resources; 4 Please use the following format when citing this chapter: Volpentesta, A.P. and Ammirato, S., 2008, in IFIP International Federation for Information Processing, Volume 283; Pervasive Collaborative Networks; Luis M. Camarinha-Matos, Willy Picard; (Boston: Springer), pp. 33–40.