I found a brief article describing business to business relationships in the agriculture/food industry.  Effective communication through businesses can help reduce environmental uncertainty, improve access to crucial resources, and increase business productivity and effectiveness.  Agribusiness relationships are disected into four different types:  Spot markets, Repeated market transactions, Formal contracts, and Financial participation.  Then, the elements of a good agri-food supply chain relationship are discussed.  All information is detailed with two specific examples.  The first business to business relationship example deals with the cattle-to-beef process, while the second example details the barley-to-beer/whiskey process.  Both examples are perfect for describing great relationships where extreme trust is necessary, especially with quality and safety.  Finally, research identifies several success factors for sustainable supply chain relationships and communication.  Visit the website at

http://www.sac.ac.uk/mainrep/pdfs/relationshipsinagrifood.pdf

Jason Koss

April 14, 2010

ACE 430